Star vs the Forces of Marco
by PFTones3482
Summary: 14 years ago, a baby was kidnapped and a demon's fate was sealed. 14 years later, a princess moves to earth to live with the same family whose baby was taken. Determined to find him but outcast by her fellow students, Star joins up with a new exchange student to fight off Ludo, find a baby, and learn magic. The question is, can she trust him? Cover done by ArtsyFalafel ITS PERFECT.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

 **Oh screw it, I'm writing this story. The prompt for it was given to me by Cat-Stat-Ave. It's not EXACTLY what they suggested, but the initial idea came from them. This is set in an Alternate Universe from the story line, and I'm hoping this story will be less than ten chapters. But with me, you never know.**

 **Let me know if you guys like this at all; I kind of already have a really epic idea for the ending if it all works out. Also let me know if you have better title ideas.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

GENERAL POV, 14 YEARS AGO

* * *

"You're sure this is the one?" he growled, glaring down at the crystal ball the fortune teller had set in front of him.

She snickered, running her talons across the smooth surface and lifting her reptilian eyes to meet his gaze. "Certain," she hissed. "He is the one. You get him in your grasp and on your side, you will not lose. I guarantee it."

He stood calmly, moving to the other side of the table and leaning over to whisper in the teller's pointed ears. "Can you guarantee your silence?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, her look calculating. "For a price," she decided.

His hand shot out and clasped around her throat too quickly for her to move. He brought the struggling demon to eye level and snarled. "Will your life suffice?" he threatened her softly.

She grabbed at his hand desperately, her eyes flashing in anger. "For now," she spat out. "But be warned. Your success was not all I saw. I saw your destruction. If you lose him-"

"I _won't_ ," he snapped.

"If you do," she continued, her nails digging firmly into his hand. " _You will fail._ "

His eyes flared in anger and he threw her to the ground in fury, pressing a knee to her chest and clamping his fingers firmly around her neck, closing off the passage of air. "I won't."

In disgust, he slammed her head back to the ground and stormed out, slicing open a portal between dimensions and stepping through as quietly as possible.

The room was dark, save for a small nightlight glowing in the corner in the shape of a star. He scoffed in annoyance at the sight and let his eyes adjust until he was able to make out the shape of the crib against the far wall. He strode over silently, his shoes barely scuffing against the carpet, and leered down at the sleeping infant.

"My destruction, hmm?" he pondered softly, reaching down to slide the baby into his arms.

The child squirmed at the interruption of sleep but settled quickly as he started making shushing sounds and rocking the baby back into a slumber. He pulled the scissors out once more and slid them down through the air, glancing around the room once to pick out the name of the child.

His eyes alighted on the monogrammed blanket in the crib and a demonic smile slid across his face as he stepped back into his own dimension, cleaving the portal shut behind him and striding to his private library. His fingers ran swiftly across the bindings and he pulled out a book of spells and potions, flipping open to a page midway in the book and smiling down at it before glancing at the baby.

"We'll just see about that, won't we Marco?"

* * *

 **Review?**


	2. Star Comes to Earth

**CHAPTER 1: Star Comes to Earth**

 **So everything up until Star actually goes to earth is the same as it is in the first episode. That's where the similarities end, though. The quotes are slightly off because I wasn't working with a script. Any chapter that has parts of an episode in it will be altered slightly.**

 **I'm glad that everyone so far seems to like it. I know there wasn't a whole lot to review in the last chapter, so I'm hoping this one provides more ammo.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Oh look, I'm back to reminding you of what the last chapter ended on. I missed that.**

* * *

" _We'll just see about that, won't we Marco?"_

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"And you said there was no magic on Earth," Star declared smugly as she flickered the light switch in the principal's office.

River stared at her and then turned to Principal Skeeves in irritation. "She's going to need a guide."

Skeeves nodded in agreement and hit the intercom button. "Jackie Lynn Thomas to the principal's office. Jackie Lynn Thomas."

He let go of the button and turned back to the king and queen. "She's in good hands here. Don't worry about a thing."

With a single nod, the parents bid their daughter goodbye and vanished back to their own dimension. Skeeves glanced at Star and frowned slightly as he watched her try to pry apart his snow globe. "Uh, Miss Butterfly? If you could follow me?"

Star obliged happily and skipped out after Principal Skeeves to the hallway just outside of his office where he asked her to wait for Jackie. The girl arrived quickly, on her skateboard like Principal Skeeves knew she would, and rolled straight up to the pudgy man. "S'up, Skeeves?" she asked, tucking her skateboard under her arm and quirking an eyebrow.

"Jackie, I'd like you to meet our new foreign exchange student, Star Butterfly. I'm asking you to be her guide around school."

Jackie looked sideways at Star, who was busy attacking a water fountain, and frowned ever so slightly. "Wait, what?" she demanded, turning her skeptical gaze to the principal.

"Yup," Skeeves said, somewhat distracted by the treasure chest in his arms. "If you need me, I'll be down at the ice cream shop. Papa's getting all 52 flavors!"

He vanished, leaving Jackie alone with Star. The girl rolled her eyes and stepped up to the somewhat quirky teenager. "So, would you like a tour of the school?"

Star immediately let go of the water fountain and bounced on her toes. "Heck yes! I'm Star!"

Jackie couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm. "Jackie," she introduced, pulling the teenager down the hall. "So I'm assuming you'll get your class schedule from the secretary-"

"Ooooooh," Star said, only half paying attention as an Exit sign flickered above them.

Jackie coughed slightly, drawing Star's attention back to her. "And you'll probably get your housing assignment at the same time. A lot of really great families take in exchange students around here," she finished.

Star nodded. "Cool! Maybe it'll be you!"

Jackie smiled, tugging on her blue strand of hair. "Nah. My parents don't host. We don't have enough room in the house for an extra person. So where are you from, anyway?"

"I'm from another dimension!" Star declared, whipping out her wand and wagging it around, spilling rabbits, spiders, and mini rainbows everywhere.

Jackie stared at her for a long time, not quite sure how to react to that information. "Riiiiight. Okay, uh, how about we go to the office and get your stuff that you need?"

Star agreed in excitement, like Jackie knew she probably would, and the two walked down to the secretary's office together, Jackie motioning for Star to wait in one of the chairs while she got her schedule for her.

"Hi, Mrs. Carey," Jackie said, leaning against the desk with both hands and settling her skateboard onto the floor. "Uh, I need the schedule and housing arrangement for the new exchange student, Star Butterfly."

The dark haired woman smiled up at Jackie and began typing around on her computer, clicking and printing a couple of sheets of paper that she in turn handed over to Jackie. "There you go, pumpkin," she declared. "Have a wonderful day."

"You too, Mrs. Carey."

Jackie sauntered back over to Star, taking a glimpse at the papers in her hand. Her smile faded slowly just as she reached the girl, and Star looked at her in concern. "Jackie? Everything all right?"

"Uh, yeah," Jackie said softly, handing over the papers. "You're going to have a couple of classes with me, which is cool, and I can introduce you to some of the people in the other classes. Your host home…."

"Rafael and Angie Diaz," Star read off. "Are they not a good family?"

"Oh no, no, no," Jackie reassured her quickly. "Like I said, all of the people who host are awesome. Just…well, they had a son who would have been our age."

Star didn't miss the words, and she looked up from the names with a raised eyebrow. "Would have been?"

"Yeah," Jackie said softly, rubbing the back of her neck and leading Star back to the principal's office to grab her stuff. "He was…he was kidnapped when he was just a baby. Well, almost a year old, but still. They never found him, and the Diaz's host students now so like…they can have a kid in the house, I guess. They're really awesome people, just have had really sucky lives."

"That's awful," Star mumbled, staring down at her wand.

Jackie looked sideways at her and gave a small smile. "Hey, sorry. Didn't mean to bum you out. Listen, I'll take you over there, introduce you to them, help you get settled in. I sometimes house sit for them when they go on vacation."

"House sit?" Star asked in bewilderment, opening the door to Skeeves' office and picking up one of her bags. "Your houses are _alive_?"

Jackie chuckled. "No, no. I just mean I keep an eye on their house, get the mail for them, make sure no one breaks in and steals stuff. Come on. Let's get over there."

The girls left the school easily, wheeling Star's biggest trunk down the road on Jackie's skateboard and chatting about the neighborhood and Star's kingdom. Jackie was having trouble believing that she actually was from another dimension, but she didn't push it.

It only took about ten minutes to reach the Diaz household, and Jackie let herself in as if it were no big deal. "Mr. and Mrs. Diaz? It's Jackie! I have a new exchange student for you!"

A woman exited from where Star guessed was the kitchen, if the smell of cookies gave any indication, and she smiled warmly, green eyes glinting in the sun as she wiped her hands off on a dishtowel. "I know. Principal Skeeves gave us a call from the ice cream parlor."

She held out a hand to Star and shook it gently. "My husband will be back shortly. He's an artist, and is currently at a show demonstrating one of his carvings."

"Cool!" Star exclaimed. "I'm a magical princess from another dimension!"

Angie raised a slow eyebrow, glancing sideways at Jackie. The girl just grinned and shrugged, and the woman chuckled. "Well Star, that's absolutely wonderful. I'm sure Jackie can show you to the guest room; she's used it plenty of times."

"Sure thing," Jackie agreed, leading the way to the stairs and helping Star drag the trunk up.

"She seems pretty happy for someone who lost their son," Star whispered to the girl, watching her toes as the trunk slipped in her grasp.

Jackie grimaced, yanking the trunk onto the landing and glancing at the door behind her. "Yeah…they always put up that appearance. That was his room, there," she said, pointing and moving aside so that Star could get off the steps.

With minimal hesitation, Star twisted the doorknob and glanced inside of the room. It looked fairly normal; there was a bed, made up for a person to sleep in, stuffed animals, a trunk in the corner, and baby pictures all over the walls.

That was the strange part, Star realized. She stepped inside a little bit and studied a picture of the baby, taking in his dark brown eyes and hair, the tiny red blanket bundled around him.

"So it's not a nursery anymore," Jackie said softly, standing in the doorway. "They changed it as the years went on, but they never let anyone sleep in here. It's really awful to think about. All of his baby stuff is still in that trunk."

Star walked over to the trunk and pushed it open, staring for a moment at the baby clothes that were all folded and neatly put away, waiting to be worn. A baby blanket emblazoned with the name _Marco_ rested on top. Her gaze drifted to the wall, where a star shaped nightlight was plugged in, flicked to the off position. She leaned down out of pure curiosity and clicked it on, surprised to find that the bulb still worked and lit up the star with a soft glow.

"Huh," Jackie muttered in surprise. "I'm shocked it still works."

Star stared at it for a long moment, watching the light flicker ever so slightly behind the star shaped glass. "Yeah….we should uh…probably get out of here," she declared, turning the light off and moving back to Jackie's side.

The girls shut the door silently and continued with moving the trunk down the hall, Star glancing back over her shoulder every few moments at the shut door.

Somehow, she decided, she was going to help the Diaz's.

* * *

The teller waved a hand over the crystal ball, causing it to go dark, and turned to stare up at the monster in quiet disgust. "You see, she is merely settling in."

"With the very FAMILY I happened to KIDNAP FROM 14 YEARS AGO!" he bellowed, swiping everything off of the table in anger. "NOW how do you propose I get to that cursed wand?"

The demon quietly picked her ball from the ground and settled it back on the table without a word, lifting her narrowed eyes as she swiped a speck of dust from the surface. "I suggest," she murmured calmly, "that perhaps you figure this out without my help."

He sneered at her and left the tent without comment, clipping his way back to his own dimension and brushing off his suit as quietly as possible.

His polished shoes clacked against the floor loudly as he strode up the stairs and down another hallway, pausing outside of the last door before rapping on the wood firmly.

"Come in!"

He pushed open the door, sweeping it shut behind him with his tail, and took in the child in front of him with mild irritation. "How are you today, Marco?" he asked softly.

The teenager glanced up from the floor, where he was busy meditating, and smirked. "Great. Just great. Bored, of course, but otherwise great."

There was an awkward second of silence in which the two merely stared at one another before Marco got to his feet and scowled, crossing his arms. "You never let me _do_ anything! You said I could get out of this stupid house when I turned 13. Well guess what? I'm 14 now, and you _still_ won't let me out! What the heck?!"

"Calm yourself," he snapped. "You know what happens when you get too upset. Remember the fine china cabinet?"

Marco froze and glanced down at his right arm, shaggy brown hair hanging in his eyes as his shoulders slumped. He shoved his hands into his pockets and grumbled. "Sorry, Toffee," he muttered. "I just….I want to go do something. You always told me that I could help you win this place back in favor of the monsters and I just…I wanted to help you do that."

Toffee smiled thinly and rested a hand on Marco's shoulder, squeezing gently. "You will," he promised. "Soon, too. I have an assignment for you, just as soon as I can make a deal with someone."

Marco's head shot up, a gleam in his eyes that almost startled the reptilian monster. "Seriously?"

"Of course," Toffee assured him, tightening his grip on his shoulder just enough to make Marco wince. "You've been practicing your fighting?"

Marco nodded, gesturing to the books lying around the room. "Uh…yeah. With those DVD's you got me too, though I'm still not sure I understand how those worked. They did help me figure out how to do the roundhouse though."

"Excellent," Toffee muttered.

With that, he left the room, leaving Marco to stand in silence, the only light in the room coming from the single bulb dangling above him.

The boy sighed and rubbed at his aching shoulder silently, pulling his right hand from his pocket and staring at it in annoyance. Of course he had to be the _one_ monster who didn't actually look like a monster. All he had was….

He flexed his hand and watched silently as his fingers melded together and his arm lengthened into an enormous navy blue and purple spotted tentacle. Toffee had always told him that the reason he looked different was part of his monster heritage; that it would help him blend in with "normal" people.

Marco shook his head and concentrated, making the tentacle disappear and shrink back into his normal hand. He shook out the pins and needles and sat back down on the floor, picking up one of the karate books that Toffee had shown up with one day.

His fingers traced the spine gently, and Marco frowned. Every now and then he felt as if he was missing something, as if he had forgotten something. Toffee had assured him ever since he was little and he had taken Marco in that it was because the Mewmans had killed his entire family, and that he was just missing his kind.

Marco snarled and pitched the book across the room. He couldn't wait to find out what job Toffee had planned for him.

He was ready to rid the world of the nuisance that was Mewni.

* * *

 **So I'm not sure how this turned out….but yeah.**

 **Um, I have the next few chapters ready, but my grandfather is going into kidney failure right now, so I don't know how often I'll be able to update this. On top of my midterms and maybe changing my major and stuff, I'm really struggling right now. Writing this is kinda the only thing I can concentrate on so yeah. Hope you're liking it so far.**


	3. Quest Buy

**CHAPTER 2: Quest Buy**

 **So my grandfather passed away early yesterday morning and the only thing keeping me from completely losing it is throwing myself into this story. I stayed up until two am writing last night because I couldn't sleep.**

 **Deadshoot12345: Trust me, I know exactly where I'm going with this.**

 **Privateandcadet: Thank you.**

 **Watermalone: Don't worry, I explain it. It's not just a random story plot I threw in with no explanation.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _He was ready to rid the world of the nuisance that was Mewni._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"Toffee, I don't see why you have to send me to Quest Buy instead of going yourself," Marco whined, following the monster down the stairs.

"For the last time, you understand the Quest Buy system much better than I ever could," Toffee snapped, spinning to face Marco.

The boy jumped a little and Toffee immediately calmed down, pressing two fingers against his eyes. "Sorry, my boy. I'm merely stressed, is all. Will you please go? I really need those crystals."

Marco sighed. "Okay. Money?"

Toffee dug into his pockets and pulled out his dimension's version of a credit card. "Here you are. Have them wrap the crystals as well. And no dawdling, do you hear me?"

Marco nodded. "Of course," he said, pulling his dimensional scissors from his back pocket. "I'll be back soon!"

He stepped through the portal quickly and Toffee scoffed. "Goody," he grumbled. He couldn't _wait_ to get rid of that nuisance.

* * *

"I still can't believe you lost your charger," Jackie muttered, stepping through the portal into Quest Buy. "How did you even manage that?"

"I don't know!" Star cried in exasperation, shutting the portal behind her. "I swear it was on my counter, and then I turned around and it was gone!"

Jackie snorted. "Maybe if you could actually see your bathroom counter, you wouldn't have this problem."

Star scowled at her friend. "This is no time for jokes, Jackie. If this thing gets to the skull," she said, gesturing to the charging bar, "then the wand is dead. _For good._ Then, I'll _never_ be able to help the Diaz's!"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Okay, so where do we find the chargers?"

Star winced. "I'm….not exactly sure. I know they're here somewhere, but the store is a complete disorganized mess. People spend forever trying to decipher where everything in here is."

As if to prove her point, an ecstatic elf spun around from the nearest map. "Finally! Housewares is that way!" it screamed in delight, before promptly slamming head first into a wall.

Star gestured to the elf and gave Jackie a look, and the girl shrugged. "Wish I could help, Star, but I'm about as organized as you. Plus, these are really weird codes," she said, glaring at the map.

"They aren't that hard," said a voice from behind the girls.

They turned to find a boy about their age, maybe older, behind them. His shaggy brown hair hung in his eyes to the point where the girls could only see his mouth, and he wore a dark gray shirt and blue jeans. Star and Jackie stared at him for a moment. "Are you human?" Jackie finally stammered.

The boy tilted his head. "No, why? Anyway, where are you guys trying to get to?"

Jackie and Star looked at one another and then back over at the map. "Uhhhh, chargers and stuff," Star answered, glancing between the apparent monster and the map repeatedly.

The boy leaned around them and studied the map for a second. "You're gonna want to take the elevator there up a couple floors. Oh hey, my department is there as well! Come on, I'll show you the way."

Star shrugged and the girls followed him to the elevator, narrowly missing Ludo as they did so, though neither party realized it. The tiny group was silent as they ventured up the couple of floors, and when they got off the boy led them into the charger room with ease. "Just so you know," he called as headed into the 'Everything Crystals' section, "they use the metric system here!"

He vanished, and Star looked sideways at Jackie. "You know anything about the metric system?" she asked.

Jackie stared up at the wall in disbelief. "Uh….base of 10?"

"We're screwed," Star groaned.

Jackie pursed her lips a bit and tilted her head though. "That guy was kinda cute though, right?"

Star turned to look at her. "Jackie you didn't even see his face cause his hair was in front of it. For all you know, he's half donkey."

"You're friends with a floating unicorn head."

"That's besides the point!"

* * *

Marco found the crystals easily and plucked the ones that Toffee needed from the wall, depositing them into a basket he had slung over his arm. He walked back through the charging station to find the two girls from before still hard at work, and his eyes drifted to the long haired blonde-in particular, the wand dangling from her belt loop.

His eyes narrowed and he clenched his fingers tightly around the handle of his basket. "Mewman princess, huh?" he muttered to himself, a sneer forming on his lips.

Keeping in mind Toffee's warnings never to engage with a Mewman unless instructed to, Marco stormed out of the charger station and nearly ran into a hoard of monsters. He stared at them for a moment, a scowl on his face, and the majority of them backed down despite the fact that they couldn't see the anger in his eyes; they could nearly feel the hatred radiating from him.

"Move it," he snapped.

To his surprise, the tiny one with the skull on his head spoke up. "Oh shut it. We're looking for Star Butterfly. One of my henchmen said that he saw her, and I will _not_ miss an opportunity to get that wand from her."

An evil grin played on Marco's lips. "Wand, huh?"

He jutted a thumb over his shoulder at the charger area. "In there."

The tiny evil man looked startled. "Oh! Why thank you! Would you care to fight with us?"

Marco scoffed out loud, nearly doubling over. "With you? No way. You guys don't stand a chance against that princess, no matter how prissy she is. I think I'll wait, thank you."

He walked away with his head high and the monsters staring after him in disbelief before running into the charger room. Marco smirked as he heard the sound of blasting and screaming coming from the room, and stepped up to check out with a smile on his face.

If _that_ was the future ruler of Mewni, a dimwitted blonde, and the only ones trying to destroy her was that pathetic excuse for a group of monsters, he would have no problem defeating her kingdom and destroying her.

* * *

"BAH!"

Toffee slammed his fist into the table, nearly smashing the teller's ball to pieces. "He CAN'T have met her! Not yet! Not now!"

The teller sighed, running a taloned hand over her bloodshot eyes (though since they were always red, it was hard to tell). "She won't remember him. His face was covered and she was too concerned about the state of her wand to pay attention to his features. Her friend, though, might recognize him. She was paying attention."

"No," Toffee snarled, pacing the tent and making the teller want a couple of leeches for her head. "No, I won't have that. The friend of Star…does she have anything I can use to get rid of her?"

The teller scowled at him, tugging on her scarf. "I am at liberty not to harm the mortals," she warned him.

"Yes, yes, I know," Toffee snapped, waving his hand at the woman. "Not harm her, merely….get rid of her."

The demon pursed her lips and stared down at the crystal ball. "I see nothing," she hissed after a moment, wishing she had never agreed to help Toffee. "The girls are close….though not as close as they could be. Separate them for a while, and their friendship will weaken."

"Or," Toffee muttered, "I could merely erase this other girl's memory."

The demon stood abruptly. "You will not harm her," she warned again, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Toffee slid over to her slowly, menacingly, towering over her and pressing a claw to the corner of her eye. "Not harm," he whispered soothingly, his voice dangerously low. "No. Erase her memory of Princess Butterfly. Erase that they were ever friends. She will have _no one_ then, and will desperately want a friend."

The demon lifted her chin abruptly, feeling the claw prick at her skin and a warm rivulet of blood trickle down her face. "What of Star? Will she not remember?"

Toffee smirked and leaned down, his breath hissing hot over her ear and making the teller shudder. "She will. And everyone will think her crazy. Marco, in turn, will fix that."

The teller turned her glowing red eyes on Toffee. "So be it," she muttered. "The spell for that kind of erasure will cost you."

Toffee smirked. "Not if I already have obtained the spell."

His claws flashed down her face, leaving three slim trails of bright crimson blood, and he pushed her back into her chair. "Stay in your place," he threatened her. "Or you will find that the palace dungeons are far more cold and terrifying than you _ever_ could have imagined."

He swept out of the room and left the teller huddled on her chair. The woman scowled and drew her scarf further over her head, running trembling talons over the ball and murmuring soft chants in Ancient Mewman.

"You will fail, Toffee," she growled. "You will fail, and you will never get the chance to try for the win again."

* * *

 **Honestly I'm really enjoying writing the fortune teller. And don't worry, the chapters will get much longer. Trust me.**


	4. Memory Wipe

**CHAPTER 3: Memory Wipe**

 **Marsetta: Consider this: without Marco, certain episodes couldn't happen. So you can just assume Pixtopia never happened. It doesn't have a whole lot of plot development anyway; it was more of a filler episode.**

 **AnotherWhovian11: No, Jackie is absolutely supposed to act like Marco because Marco isn't really….Marco. Besides, I feel like she's really friendly.**

 **NewUnited:….thanks? I think?**

 **Mim again: Thank you dear. It's very nice to see you back on Tumblr too, even if only for a short time.**

 **AnimationNut: It's fine. I'll just be under the bed squealing like a maniac. I'm really happy you decided to write for this fandom, because all of your writing is superb.**

 **Watermalone: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.**

 **CartoonGurl201m: Yeah, I can guarantee that I'll probably spam my followers with a lot of Star vs. the Forces of Evil until the new season comes out. I'm actually already writing another one shot lol.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

" _You will fail, Toffee," she growled. "You will fail, and you will never get the chance to try for the win again."_

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

Star bounced into school and slid into her homeroom seat next to Jackie, leaning over and grinning at the girl. "Okay, so did I make Brittney's party the bomb, or what?"

Jackie stared at her blankly. "Uh…or what? Were you even there?"

Star stared at her for a moment before grinning. "Ha! Very funny, Jackie. Okay but for real, do you want a puppy? Cause I brought home the couple that I made on the bus and Mr. and Mrs. Diaz love them but they don't know if they want all five of them."

Jackie shook her head. "Star, I literally don't care. Why are you talking to me?"

Star's face fell as she realized that Jackie wasn't kidding. "Wait…you don't remember hanging out at the party?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "We've never hung out anywhere before, Star. Everyone here can confirm it."

The entire homeroom class nodded and murmured their agreements and Jackie shrugged. "Sorry, Star. We just aren't really friends. You're cool and all, but I don't really know you."

" _Know_ me?" Star yelped. "Jackie, you went to other dimensions with me! How can you not-"

"Yo! Butterfly!" Skullnick barked. "Shut it so I can take attendance."

Star sank back in her seat, trying to swallow back the tears that were brimming in her eyes. How could Jackie not remember her, or anything they had done together? How could no one remember it? What had happened to make them forget?

"Ludo," Star muttered under her breath, clenching her fists on her desk and glowering at the tabletop.

He would be behind this. Star wasn't sure where he had gotten the power to do something like this, but she was going to make sure it didn't last. She wasn't going to lose the friends she had at school over a dumb spell. She needed help from Jackie; she needed to make the Diaz's happy again, and she couldn't do that alone. She had to break whatever spell everyone was under.

She stood up and bolted from her chair, ignoring Skullnick's protests, and ran out of the room and down the hall, screeching to a halt when she spotted Oskar sitting in the parking lot.

Her heart fluttered in her chest and Star sighed with contentment, not quite sure why she had been planning on leaving class in the first place. That is, until she glanced down and spotted a purple heart resting on the tip of her nose. "Oh no," she muttered, peeling it off and staring at it.

She had to get home.

* * *

"You want me to do _what_?!" Marco shrieked, leaping to his feet and glaring at Toffee.

Toffee frowned and straightened his suit jacket. "You heard me. I want you to go to Earth and befriend Princess Butterfly."

Marco scoffed in disgust. "That….that prissy princess? Why would I do that? Why would I work with _her_?"

Toffee snarled and moved quickly, grabbing Marco by the shirt collar. "Because," he hissed, his eyes flashing with a fury Marco had never seen before. "She is vulnerable now. She needs someone there for her, someone to trust. And _YOU_ will be that someone, and then I will destroy that wand and you-"

"I'll destroy her?" Marco guessed, his voice cracking.

Toffee seemed to realize he still had the boy in a death grip and he dropped him back to the floor and straightened out his suit. "Yes, of course."

Marco pursed his lips. "All right. What do I have to do?"

Toffee smirked. "My sources tell me at the moment that she has just begun going through Mewberty. Everyone at her school has forgotten they were ever acquaintances with her, and thus when her Mewberty ends, she will become an outcast for scaring the school population."

Marco hesitated. "So then….I become friends with her? What about living and stuff? Like what if she asks to come back to my house?"

Toffee looked at Marco like he was completely daft. "I'm not stupid," he said in slight irritation. "I have connections, and there is a house for you to temporarily have fake residence at on earth. Now remember, you are not to hurt anyone, do you hear me?"

Marco nodded solemnly. "You know I wouldn't hurt anyone. At least not humans," he muttered. "The Mewmans are another matter."

" _No one_ ," Toffee snarled. "You are to act like Star Butterfly is in fact a true friend so that she'll fall for our trap. You want to take her and her kingdom down, don't you?"

Marco gulped and nodded again, ducking his head. "Yes sir."

Toffee smirked. "Two more things, Marco. You are not to use your monster arm around her at all, no matter what the circumstances. If she is battling monsters, you are only to use your fighting knowledge."

Marco nodded. "Okay. And the second thing?"

"Second, you are not to go back to Star's house. As few people as possible should see you, so I don't want you going anywhere near her host home."

Toffee watched the boy's reaction carefully, seeing his eyes flash in confusion. "Well…I suppose that makes sense," Marco decided, running a hand through his hair.

"Another thing," Toffee said with a grunt. "You need a haircut, and a new name."

"What's wrong with Marco?" Marco asked, looking somewhat wounded. He had always liked his name; he felt like it completed him, like it was more than just a name, like it bonded him to his past family somehow.

"Nothing," Toffee decided after a long moment, pacing his foyer and rubbing at his chin. "But you will need a last name. Something that fits how you look."

Marco frowned and glanced down at his skin. "How I look?"

Toffee waved a hand. "Yes, yes, on Earth you would be called 'Latino.' Martinez should do, though it is rather stereotypical. Now go, gather your things together while I call the hairdresser."

Marco wasted no time in running up the stairs and vanishing into his bedroom, and Toffee let his neutral look slip into a glower. He'd had enough of that stupid boy running around his home, asking his dumb questions. If he had known that raising a human child would be so difficult, he would have settled for just killing the boy first thing.

But no, he could use him for so much more if he was alive instead. Toffee sighed and summoned his hairdresser from the city, sending him up to meet Marco in his room.

When the boy came down half an hour later, Toffee's eyes widened ever so slightly. His hair had been trimmed so that, while it was still slightly unruly, his eyes could be seen very clearly. He wore a red hoodie over the gray shirt he usually wore, and his black pants had been ironed. Marco had a bag slung over his shoulder and a wary look in his eyes. All in all, he actually looked somewhat decent.

"You're sure I should do this?" he asked nervously, adjusting the bag. The hairdresser left silently, and Toffee didn't even look at him.

"Yes," the monster said, putting a clawed hand on Marco's shoulder. "Remember. Befriend her. And when the time comes, you will know when and how to betray her."

Marco nodded and sliced through the air with his dimensional scissors, glancing back at Toffee anxiously. "Thanks," he finally said, knowing that Toffee wasn't really one for gratitude. "For uh…taking me in and helping me and stuff. I still don't understand why you did."

He exited quickly, closing up the portal behind him and leaving his guardian in the darkening foyer.

Toffee grunted. "You'll see, my boy. In time, you'll see."

* * *

Marco stepped into the hallway of the school and frowned, turning slowly on his heel and staring around. He wasn't exactly sure what a typical Earth high school looked like, but he was pretty sure there were supposed to be students around.

"Pssst! Hey you, get down!"

Marco whirled around to find a terrified male peeking out of the bushes at him. "What? Why?"

"She'll get you!" another guy squeaked from beside the first.

A humming noise came from behind Marco and he spun around, dropping his bag in horror and taking two steps back.

The _thing_ in front of him tilted her head slowly, her eyes dilated to nothing more than hearts and six arms sliding out from her torso. Wings beat rapidly behind her and it was only when Marco spotted the hearts on her cheeks that he realized that this was Princess Butterfly.

His immediate emotion was disgust, then horror as she dove at him and shoved him up against the locker, sticking him in place with something-he didn't want to know what-that materialized from her fingers.

Some kind of music began playing in the background and Marco frowned as Star whipped her head up and then leapt away from him. He pulled his head away from the lockers and watched as the girl flew towards a guy obliviously playing a keyboard on top of his car.

"Oh no," Marco muttered. He didn't know the guy, but he didn't want anyone getting hurt on his watch. Calling in a little bit of strength from his tentacle arm, Marco yanked away from the lockers and ran towards the mutated Star, grabbing a volleyball net on a whim and flinging it at her.

She was caught immediately and snarled against the net. Marco grunted and pulled back, only to have the girl drag him all over the courtyard before he finally let go out of sheer desperation, sliding to a halt and then tumbling to the ground as he lost momentum.

Seconds later, Star flew off with the guy on the car and Marco sat up on his knees, watching her vanish into the sky. "Seriously?" he groaned. "I'm here for two seconds and I lose her? Toffee is gonna kill me."

He lowered his head and ran his hands through his hair, jumping ever so slightly as something landed on his nose. Going cross-eyed, Marco was able to spot a purple heart, and as he looked up, dozens more fluttered down from the sky.

He screamed as the car Star had carried off into the sky slammed down just next to him, and, moments later, that dude who had been on top as well. He gave Marco a nod and a "s'up?" before what was basically an explosion distracted the teenager again.

He turned to see Star standing up woozily from a pile of demolished lockers and putting a hand on her head in confusion. He frowned, not sure what to do. Should he talk to her? Ignore her until later?

"What the _heck_ Butterfly, you could have killed us!" some blonde haired jock spat out, coming out from his hiding place behind a bush.

Star looked horrified at the thought, lowering her hands from her head to her sides. "I didn't mean-"

"You _never_ mean!" a rather nerdy looking kid sneered. "Oh my gosh, Star, do you know how freaky you actually are? What kind of person turns into a freaking butterfly mutant?"

Marco could see tears in her eyes now, and though he should have been laughing at her misery, something about what the kids were saying hit him. He glanced down at his tentacle arm and grimaced ever so slightly, looking back up as the group started jeering and name calling and threatening the girl in front of them.

Star wrapped her arms tightly around herself, tears freely spilling now, and she managed to stammer out, "I'm sorry," before she shoved through the crowd and ran down a nearby hallway.

Against his better judgement, Marco followed.

* * *

 **So just assume that everything before this episode happened as it did in the series; Skullnick is a troll, Gustav visited and Star thought he wanted to eat Mr. and Mrs. Diaz….Jackie would take the place of Marco in everything but monster fighting.**

 **Reviews?**


	5. I'm Marco

**CHAPTER 4: I'm Marco**

 **Acw28: Yup. She will still pop up from time to time though, so don't worry.**

 **MariposaFalls11: Omg the new Gravity Falls made me so mad. It's kind of fun to make Marco so nasty to be honest.**

 **Watermalone: Oh absolutely, episode 8 is crucial. And Toffee being angry is just kind of how I imagine him when he doesn't have an audience.**

 **Legogamma: Thank you for your condolences.**

 **So. This week has been kinda rough for me. Writing's tricky right now, but luckily I have the next several chapters for this already written.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _Against his better judgement, Marco followed._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

He found her sitting on a park bench a couple of blocks away, her knees drawn up to her chin and tears streaming down her cheeks. Hiccups shook her body every few seconds, and Marco took a moment to study her from a distance.

Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and a blue sleeveless dress covered her body. Her wand had been deposited onto the bench next to her and Marco was ever so tempted to grab it. He kept his cool, however, even managing to reach into his pocket for a tissue.

"Are you uh…okay?" he asked, trying very hard not to snarl the question at her as he handed the tissue over.

Star looked up hesitantly, confusion flashing across her eyes as she took it from him. "Who are you?" she choked out.

Marco stepped back slightly, clasping his hands behind his back so as not to seem like a threat and sliding his dimensional scissors lower in his pocket. "I uh….I'm Marco," he finally answered, not missing the flash of recognition in her eyes. "I just moved here, and you looked kinda upset."

He nodded his head back towards the school. "What was all of that about?" he asked, feigning innocence.

Star winced and looked down at her hands. Silence fell between them as he waited for the answer and she contemplated it, the sun speckling across the two of them and dappling the trees around them with a light that Marco didn't think he'd ever seen before.

"I'm um…I'm from another dimension," Star finally got out, making Marco look up. "And…all of that stuff was Mewberty and I guess….I just freaked everyone out."

Marco pursed his lips. "They said some pretty harsh things," he said truthfully, scuffing his foot in the dirt. "I mean, you couldn't control all that, right?"

Star looked up at him warily and shook her head. "No. Why are you being so nice? You don't even know me."

Marco wanted to roll his eyes and spout off every fact he knew about her, which was quite a few, but he kept that all to himself. "Because," he said with a shrug. "You seemed kinda down, and everyone was being really nasty. I'd be pretty upset if someone didn't come to talk to me."

Star gave him a hesitant smile and stuck out a hand. "Thanks. I'm Star, by the way."

Marco took her hand with the slightest grimace, unable to stop himself from recalling the nasty sticky stuff that had come from her fingers mere minutes ago. "Cool."

They stood for another moment as Marco discreetly wiped the palm of his hand on his pants, neither of them quite sure what to say. "So…" Marco started. "Do…people at that school always treat you like that?"

Star flinched and looked down at her hands. "Not up until recently. They all just started acting like I had never hung out with any of them before, even Jackie, who was like my best friend until today. I think Ludo had something to do with it," she grumbled.

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Ludo?" he asked, knowing very well who the moronic demon was. After all, Toffee was trying to figure out how to infiltrate the other demon's castle.

"Yeah, my nemesis," Star said, glancing up. Catching the look of mild disgust on Marco's face, the girl sighed. "Sorry. I know, I know, it's weird for people on earth."

Marco paused and she studied him carefully. "Do I…do I know you?" she asked slowly. His hair and voice reminded her of someone, though she couldn't quite place who. His eyes were even more striking; something about them haunted her. They weren't much, normal brown eyes like half the world had, but there was something in them that was filled with quiet anger, something that glimmered with silent hopes. His name, too….it was the same as the Diaz's baby, though she knew that it was common for multiple people on Earth to have the same name.

"Not unless you've been to, uh…Texas," Marco said, pulling one of the only states in the United States that he knew the name of out of thin air. "That's where I'm from."

Star slumped slightly, defeated that this wasn't the Marco she was looking for. "No, I've never been there. Sorry to bug you, I guess."

She pushed herself to her feet and slipped her wand into her hand, walking towards the entrance of the park with her head down. Marco twisted his lips into a scowl and quickly went after her. "Hold on a sec," he said, grabbing lightly to her elbow.

As her gaze turned to him, Marco found himself unsure of what to say next. "I uh…I could use a tour guide. And you weren't bugging me. I came after you, remember?"

Star smiled thinly. "Thanks for that, Marco but I…don't really know if I can trust you. No offense," she added quickly, "but my entire school was just turned against me somehow. For all I know, you're just a monster in disguise."

Marco stiffened ever so slightly but let her go, knowing that he couldn't blow his cover. He waited for her to round the corner before going after her again. "Wait, Star, I-"

He was cut off as a portal opened up in front of them and Ludo and his henchmen spilled out. Star spun on him, eyes flashing. "You _are_ a monster!" she cried out.

"NO!" Marco said quickly, holding up his hands and trying hard to look scared. "I have no idea what these things are doing here!"

"Star Butterfly!" Ludo squealed in delight. Star turned from Marco to the tinier threat and gave a rather impressive sneer.

"Ludo. What are _you_ doing here?" Star demanded, twirling her wand through her fingers.

The tiny demon smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Star hesitated, looking befuddled. "Uh, yes…that's why I asked."

Marco bit back a guffaw. Okay, he had to scratch the whole "Prissy Princess" name off his list. She was sassier than he had expected.

"I don't have to tell you anything!" Ludo shouted. "Get her!"

It was now or never. Marco made a split second decision and leapt in front of Star, beating down a monster as quickly as possible without even tapping into his tentacle arm powers. Star stared at him in shock, a tentative smile growing on her face. "You can fight?"

Marco smirked and punched another monster in the face. "It's called….karate," he declared, remembering the name from the books that Toffee had given him.

Only minutes later, the monsters were lying in the streets like dead fish, groaning and gasping for breath as Ludo called a retreat. As they left, Star turned to Marco with a sheepish face. "Sorry I accused you of being a monster," she apologized, twisting a strand of hair around her fingers.

Marco shrugged, the adrenaline still pumping through him, and he struggled a little to keep control of his monster arm, flexing and relaxing his hand at his side to calm it. "No big. I could see why you thought that. We cool?"

Star smiled brightly, clasping her hands around her wand in front of her. "Really? You're not freaked out like everyone else?"

"I don't see why I should be," Marco said with a shrug. "So….I kind of need to go back to the school to get my bag. Want to come with?"

Star chewed on the end of her wand, studying Marco carefully. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

* * *

"You see? He is doing fine," the teller assured Toffee.

Toffee frowned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps for now. But what if he begins to be around the humans too much, realizes he is truly one of them and not a monster?"

The teller pursed her wrinkled lips. "That is not my concern. However," she added quickly, seeing the menacing look on Toffee's face, "I can assure you that so long as he does not go to his former home, he will refuse to believe he could be one of them. After all, you performed the monster arm spell on him for a reason. It took a great deal of your power to do, I know."

Her eyes drifted to Toffee's missing finger and the reptile snarled, hiding the hand behind his back. "What I did is none of your concern," he hissed.

"No one said it was," the teller assured him, running her talons over her crystal ball once more and keeping a close eye on Marco and Star. "I foresee that in the near future, you will create the deal you have been hoping to make."

Toffee nodded firmly. "Wonderful. And the outcome of the deal?"

The seer pursed her lips. "Still fuzzy," she declared, squinting at the ball. "It can be altered if Marco's loyalties sway."

"They won't," Toffee said with determination. "And since they won't, can you tell me the outcome?"

"If they won't," the teller said softly, putting slight emphasis on the first word, "then you will get what you seek."

A rare, evil grin spread across Toffee's face and he spun to exit the tent without another word, leaving the teller sitting alone once again. She chortled quietly and shook her head.

"Foolish demon," she mumbled, adjusting her scarf and looking back into the crystal ball. "They all think they know humans so well. But they forget that the greatest ability of humans is the ability to change."

She rolled her eyes and slid back from her chair, moving to the calendar she had set up on a side table. "The blood moon approaches, Toffee," she cackled gently, circling a date with a red sliver of chalk. "And what of your precious kidnapped child then? Loyalties sway on the night of the blood moon."

The demon turned away from the calendar and pressed her talons to her lips, unintentionally pricking herself and drawing blood. She ventured to the door of her tent and stared out onto the plains of her dimension, a snicker spilling out of her mouth.

"Your demise," she whispered to the wind, "will be marvelous."

* * *

 **I love the teller. And yeah, I kinda copied the first episode with the Star and Ludo interaction; but since it was Star and Marco's first time meeting (technically) it seemed appropriate.**

 **Reviews?**


	6. Getting to Know You

**CHAPTER FIVE: Getting to Know You**

 **Wow okay sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I've gotten REALLY into Miraculous Ladybug (as you all probably know) and have been binging that for a while. That plus the fact that I've been overwhelmed with schoolwork (btw, I did switch my major to Creative Writing, so thank you guys so much for helping me with that) means that I haven't been super inspired to write lately. Ironically.**

 **Bigmike33321: Omg if you still need someone to take a look, I totally will. I'm sorry I never messaged you about that!**

 **Princess Dia: Thank you so much dear.**

 **Some Random Girl101: A bit of both. Some chapters will be entirely independent of the show.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I'm on a Fall Out Boy/Phineas and Ferb music streak right now.**

* * *

" _Your demise," she whispered to the wind, "will be marvelous."_

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Marco made it a point to "hang out" with Star as much as possible. He never went over to her house, and she had only been to his once, but at school they were together often.

Star was still avoided by her classmates; most of them would speak to her if it was in regards to a class assignment, but other than that they steered clear. Marco knew that it was getting to the girl, and he smirked every time she was shot down by one of her previous friends.

Still, at the same time, Marco also felt a pang of guilt whenever he laughed. He knew what it felt like to have no friends; hell, before he had started being fake friends with Star, he hadn't had any. It wasn't a void he had ever thought about intently, but now that he was watching this princess break down over the people who were so nasty to her, he couldn't help but feel like he should apologize to her.

She had been down for such a long time that it really shouldn't have surprised him when he got word from one of the kids in his first period class that some floating, fiery man had basically proposed to Star during homeroom.

Grabbing the bathroom pass and racing from the room, Marco couldn't help but wonder what another demon was doing trying to get close to Star. It wasn't possible that Toffee would replace him, was it?

Marco shook his head, rounding the corner and making a dash for the parking lot. No. No way. Toffee wouldn't replace him. Not for something this important.

He lifted his eyes to see Star leaning over what looked like a pink rabbit that was being held by a rather attractive looking demon with an evil glint in his eyes that Marco recognized all too well; it was the look Toffee got in his eyes whenever something went his way. Whatever or whoever this demon was, his plans for Star weren't good. And Marco couldn't let anyone destroy the princess before he got the chance to.

Which was why he flipped over Star's head and karate chopped the demon's hand clean off, the bunny hitting the ground with it. "Back off, demon!" he snarled.

The three eyed moron sneered at him, fire flaring up in his eyes. Just as Marco was prepared to be incinerated, a pudgy human stepped out of the damned chariot and began walking the demon around the parking lot.

"Marco, don't karate chop him," Star sighed in defeat, looking rather down. "This is…Tom."

"Demon ex-boyfriend Tom?" Marco asked in surprise, having heard about him once or twice from Star. "What is he doing here?"

Star looked at him sheepishly. "He wants to take me to the Blood Moon Ball."

Marco froze. The Blood Moon Ball? He knew _exactly_ what that was. And as soon as he heard the words, he knew exactly what Tom had planned for Star. He wanted to join their souls and bind them together for eternity. "Star," Marco said softly, narrowing his eyes at Tom, "never go with a predator to a second location."

He couldn't let Tom get at Star. If those two were bound together for an eternity, Marco would never have a chance to destroy the kingdom of Mewni because she would be under Tom's protection. He turned his gaze back to Tom as the demon handed over a bell for Star to call with if she changed her mind about going. As soon as his chariot of eternal damnation disappeared, Marco wrapped a hand around Star's wrist. "You can't go with him."

Star scoffed. "I can do what I want, Marco. If I decide to go, that's my choice."

"You _can't_ ," Marco spat out, his eyes flashing violently and his grip tightening on the girl without his knowledge.

"Ow! Marco, geez, let go!" Star yelped, trying to wrench her hand away.

Marco immediately yanked his hand away, his rage dying as he checked to make sure he hadn't hurt her or lost control of his monster arm. Either thing happening would completely blow his cover. "Sorry," he said blandly, tugging on a sweatshirt string. "I just don't trust Tom."

Star was still watching him warily, cradling her wrist in her hand. "I know," she finally acknowledged. "But it could be fun. Do you uh…want to come back to my host house and help pick out an outfit to wear?"

Marco swallowed and shook his head. "I uh…can't. Got a lot of homework and stuff. Text me though?" He had purchased a cellphone upon first arriving on earth so that he would appear more human to everyone.

Star nodded in agreement and the two parted, Star going back to wherever her house was and Marco trudging to the house that Toffee had gotten for him. He stepped inside and flicked on the front foyer light, taking a moment to stare around the empty area and sigh.

He dumped his backpack at the entrance and shoved his hands in his pockets, slumping into the kitchen and pulling open the fridge, staring at the vacant cavity for several seconds and trying to will food to appear. When nothing happened, as usual, he shut the door rather hard and listened to the sound of dishes rattling in the cupboards.

"ARGH!"

Marco spun and slammed a fist firmly into the wall, his chest heaving. He summoned his monster arm out of hiding and swung it around, cracking the kitchen table neatly down the middle and cleaving the arm right into the floorboards, effectively giving him blisters. Marco collapsed to the floor and flexed the tentacle, watching silently as it shrank back into an arm before he clutched it to his chest and rocked back on his heels.

"This shouldn't be so hard," he muttered. "Or so confusing."

He shook his head, running a hand through his unruly brown hair before pushing himself to his feet and slinking up the stairs to his bedroom. Marco was tired; tired of not hearing from Toffee, tired of pretending to be friends with a dimwitted princess, tired of living in a place that made him question….

Well, everything.

Marco sank onto his bed and stared down at his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists. Something about Earth didn't sit quite right with Marco; he had only been there for less than a month, but already he had an unsettling feeling in his stomach, as if he were two steps away from finding out some world shattering secret.

Marco didn't want to find out what that was.

He sat in silence for a long time, watching the shadows stretch across his floorboards and change from bright sunshine to darkness, nearly falling off his bed when his phone buzzed with a text from Star.

 _What do you think?_

Attached was a photo of the girl, taken in front of a mirror. Her hair was pulled into a bun, tendrils framing the edges of her smiling face. She wore a pink dress with darker pink designs on the hem, a single strap going over her shoulder, and white boots adorned her feet.

Marco tapped out the text before he really thought about it. _You look amazing._

He froze as his thumb subconsciously hit "send" and the message popped up on their chat history. He did _not_ just say that about the freaking princess of Mewni. Marco scoffed in irritation and tossed his phone onto the bed next to him, burying his head in his hands.

Nope. He hadn't said that. Not really. It was just part of his cover, Marco reassured himself. In all reality, Star was an airheaded blonde who was basically delusional in the idea that she could ever become queen.

His phone buzzed again and he glanced at the text out of the corner of his eyes. _Thanks, Marco!_

He hesitated, picking the device up and dancing his thumbs over the top as he searched for what to say. _I still don't think you should go._

Her response came in seconds and reminded Marco of why she annoyed him in the first place. _I'm totally going._

He frowned, slowly setting the device aside and leaning back against his pillow, tucking his arms behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. He didn't care. She could do whatever she wanted; it wasn't like he was her father or something.

Still…Marco didn't want her and Tom getting caught under the Blood Moon light together; that could prove disastrous to Toffee's plans. And when Toffee was mad…

Marco shuddered and sat up in bed, his eyes scanning his darkened room and landing on his closet. He slid from the mattress and flung the closet door open, shuffling through his clothes until he paused on the only suit that he owned. He pulled it from the hanger and studied it for a long moment before finally giving in and pulling the outfit on. Knowing that he would be recognized instantly at the party, he swung by Quest Buy for a sombrero and a skeleton mask before cutting his way into the Underworld.

He glanced around slowly, lifting his gaze as the window overhead began glowing with the Blood Moon light. _Shit._ Where was she?

"Star?" he hissed, ducking around various monsters and searching desperately for the princess. "Where are you?"

He finally caught sight of her and, seeing Tom nowhere in sight, raced out and grabbed her by the wrist. His mind flashed briefly on when he had grabbed her earlier and he loosened his grip ever so slightly, pulling her back towards him.

It happened quickly; her feet slipped just a little underneath her and she stumbled against his chest just as the Blood Moon light struck them in its beam. Marco froze for the briefest moment before realizing that everyone was staring. Knowing he couldn't make a scene, he began dancing.

He spun her in circles and dipped her around the room, trying to get her attention and snap her out of her trance-whatever that was about-before Tom spotted them. "Star!" he whispered desperately.

"How do you know my name?" the girl asked dreamily.

Marco rolled his eyes. Right. The mask. "It's me, Marco," he explained, lifting the mask away just long enough for her to see him.

"Marco!" Star yelped in shock, her eyes flashing with recognition. "What are you doing here?"

Marco glanced back over his shoulder, spotting Tom coming their way, and his heart pounded in mild terror at the look in the demon's eyes. "Let's get out of here, this place is the worst."

He felt the hands at his back, the claws that dug just slightly into his jacket and reminded him almost perfectly of Toffee, and the next thing he knew he was on the floor staring up at the most pissed off demon he had ever seen in his life. He scrambled backwards, tempted for just a second to grow his monster arm and fight back.

And then Star zapped Tom into a block of ice.

Marco froze (metaphorically speaking). Had Star just saved his life?

"Let's go Marco," the girl grumbled, stomping past him. With a quick glance back over his shoulder, Marco got to his feet and darted after the girl, knowing that he would have to come up with an explanation for how he had gotten there.

However, the ride back with Star was completely silent. There was a moment of panic on Marco's part when he realized that Star was going back to her house, but he shoved it aside with a shake of his head. It was only for a few minutes; how much harm could it do?

"Thanks for the lift!" Star called over her shoulder at the demon who had brought them back. She and Marco slid off the carriage and Marco glanced back to watch it vanish in flames.

"Ugh," Star grumbled. "So infuriating!"

Marco smirked ever so slightly. "I hate to say it, but I warned you about Tom."

To his surprise, Star spun on him and chucked her shoes at him. They missed entirely and flew over the edge of the balcony, though Marco wasn't positive that she had intended to hit him. "No! You! _You're_ infuriating!"

Marco stared at her in shock, trying very hard not to let his surprise turn to anger. "Me? I was just trying to help!"

"You don't trust me to do things by myself!" Star interrupted. Marco's heart leapt into his throat as she stormed closer, only to watch her lean against the balcony and stare out at the sky. "I'm 14…I can handle a demon."

There was a long pause between the two as Marco tried to figure out what to say. He had never seen this side of Star; actually, now that he thought about it, encasing Tom in an ice block was the first time he had ever seen her do magic like that without a spell. And she had been protecting _him_.

"I know you're trying to look out for me," Star continued finally, making Marco glance up, "but I need to figure things out on my own. I don't need a hero."

She glanced back over her shoulder at Marco. "I need a friend."

He stared at her for a minute, finally seeing the girl in a new light. Ever so slowly, he lowered his gaze and moved to stand next to her, facing her bedroom. He removed the mask from his face and stared at the ground, his mind racing. "You're right," he finally admitted. "I should have trusted you. I'm…I'm sorry I ruined your night."

He swallowed hard, unable to believe that he had just apologized sincerely to this princess of a kingdom that had killed his family. Star looked over at him and turned around.

"Well, it's not a total loss," she admitted, swiping his sombrero from his head. "Now I know you can dance."

Marco snickered, patting down his hat hair before she could make fun of it. "I wouldn't go that far. I'm not that good of a dancer."

Star shrugged. "I dunno, what I saw was pretty good."

Marco glanced up with a thin smile. "Is that so?"

She nodded and then gestured to her room. "You uh…want to come in? You've never been to my house before."

Marco stared into the house and took an unwilling step forward, tilting his head slowly. Something about this house was pulling him in, and he didn't realize he was at the door of the balcony until Star settled a hand on his shoulder. "Marco? You okay?"

He shook himself out of his daze and backed away from the door quickly, turning to meet Star's gaze. "I um…I gotta go back to my house. Getting late and all."

Something in his gut told him that if he went inside that house, something bad would happen, and he didn't want that.

"Right," Star said, looking disappointed. "Uh…well thanks. For the dance, I mean."

She blushed ever so slightly and Marco felt his cheeks heat up. "I'll see you…"

"Tomorrow," she said at the same time he did.

They stared at one another in surprise. "Woah!" they both exclaimed. "We both said-"

Both faltered, eyes widening and eyebrows lifting. "-the same thing-"

Marco mentally cursed, knowing exactly what was going on. He and Star had been caught under the Blood Moon beam. "Okay stop that," they chorused.

Star yelped and grabbed for her wand, pointing it at Marco's chest. His instincts immediately kicked in and he narrowed his eyes, his teeth grinding against one another. He knew that she wouldn't hurt him though, and quickly forced out a laugh to ease the tension.

"That was new," Star observed.

Marco nodded. "Yeah…weird. Anyway, is there a way I can get down from the balcony? If your host family is asleep, I don't want to wake them."

Star turned her wand on the balcony and blasted a staircase into existence. "There. See you tomorrow, then."

Marco nodded, grabbed his sombrero back from her, and descended the staircase silently, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking until he was far enough away that Star wouldn't see him open a portal.

So now he and Star were forever intertwined underneath the Blood Moon's light? Weird. Marco wasn't quite sure he liked the thought of that. And yet….

And yet, it almost felt right.

* * *

 ***insert audio clip of Jeremy laughing at Marco after he broke Jackie's skateboard here* (literally my favorite laugh ever omg)**

 **Reviews?**


	7. Fortune Cookies

**CHAPTER SIX: Fortune Cookies**

 **So I'm trying really hard to write an actual book? What? What even is wrong with me? I dunno. It'll probably never happen lol. Haha. I am not a fan of myself right now.**

 **Bigmike33321: Of course! I haven't had a lot of time in the last few days, but I'll get to it as soon as I can! I'm so sorry!**

 **Godzilla2915: Oh don't worry, it's getting finished.**

 **Ghost: Descendents was a surprisingly good movie, and I can see where you would get that impression.**

 **MariposaFalls11: That's a pretty good laugh too.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: Toffee is providing everything to him (although as you can see, it's the barre minimum, if that).**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _And yet, it almost felt right._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO GO NEAR HER HOME!"

Marco shrank underneath the enraged gaze of Toffee, trying to hide his trembling hands. "What was I supposed to do?" he shot back feebly. "Tell her that my adoptive demon father doesn't want me being spotted by more people than necessary before I destroy the kingdom of Mewni?"

Toffee's glower softened ever so slightly and he stepped back a little, making Marco breathe a sigh of relief. "No. I suppose not. But this is the last time I will tell you: you are not to go in that house."

Marco frowned, crossing his arms. "Why not?" he demanded. "Don't give me the 'too many people will see you' excuse, either. The entire town has basically seen me."

Toffee faltered, which Marco didn't miss. "Yes," the demon murmured, "but if her host family sees you, and she goes missing, chances are they'll point fingers at you."

"So what?" Marco retorted, feeling confident all of a sudden. "You made Star's friend Jackie forget they were friends, right? You could just make her host family forget about me if that ever happened."

Toffee hissed. " _NO._ You will _not_ go in that house, do you understand me?"

Marco narrowed his gaze, sliding his hands into his pocket and pulling out his dimensional scissors. "Yes. Now are you going to tell me if you made the deal yet or not?"

The lizard gritted his teeth. "No. The imbecile has yet to search for new help, and I cannot simply barge my way into his domain. I will let you know when I have. It should be soon, however."

Marco nodded. "Okay," he said softly, ripping open a portal next to him. "Just tell me when."

He vanished back to Earth, leaving Toffee to break his usual stoic character and shout in frustration, slamming his claws into a nearby lounge chair and shredding the stuffing out of it. "That _boy_ ," he growled, trying to control his outrage, "will be the _death_ of me."

"We'll hope so, now won't we?" murmured a voice from behind him.

Toffee spun to find the fortune teller standing in his doorway, her scarf pulled around her and a folded piece of paper in her hands. He was on her so quickly that she didn't have time to blink, and his trembling hand closed around her throat.

" _What_ could you _possibly_ want?" Toffee spat out, tightening his grip on her leathery skin.

The teller smirked, red eyes flashing with smugness that was not common among people being strangled in the grasp of a reptilian demon. She held up the slip of paper tauntingly. "Your opportunity….has arrived," she choked out, her voice rasping as her throat closed off.

Toffee let her go immediately, snatching the paper from her talons and yanking it open, scanning the words with greed. "Perfect," he purred. "That fool will be out of his castle in less than two weeks."

"If you get the job," the teller snickered softly, readjusting her scarf.

Toffee turned to her with a smile that was more horrifying than his scowl. His hands clenched around the paper and he slowly advanced on her until she was forced to move backwards out of his home.

"Oh, I will," he promised her with a hiss. "And I promise that when I start my reign, you'll be the first to know."

With that, he slammed the door and headed for his wine cellar. West Mewnian Swamp Water would be perfect for this event.

* * *

"I'm serious, Marco. I want to go on a hunt for him, make the Diaz's feel better. _Some_ information is better than no information," Star said as they headed for the Chinese restaurant.

Ever since coming to Earth, Marco had developed a particular love of exotic cuisines (at least, exotic to Americans). His two favorites were Chinese cuisine and Mexican, and since there was nowhere nearby he could think of to get Mexican food, after they had defeated Ludo's monsters for the umpteenth time Marco had suggested that he and Star go out to eat.

She had been rambling about her host family's missing kid for the last five minutes, and Marco was frankly ready to tell her to stuff it and then stuff her down a storm drain. That would probably blow his cover, though, so he feigned listening, nodding and murmuring words of agreement as she spoke.

"Marco, are you even listening?"

The boy turned to find Star staring at him impatiently, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah," he defended. "You wanted to find your host family's kid. Star, if he was a baby when he was stolen, who's to say he's even still alive?"

Star winced and glanced down. "I dunno. Hey, you guys have the same name. Can like, Earth people sense other people with the same names?"

Marco frowned ever so slightly. He didn't _think_ Earth people could do that. "Of course not. That's not how it works," he decided, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. She pouted, and Marco chewed on his lip. "Maybe you could like….search for him on the Internet."

He didn't know much about Earthly technology, but he did know that the Internet was an easy way to find people, and Star apparently knew it too, because her eyes lit up at the suggestion. "Oooh, good idea Marco! Hey look, Chinese food!"

He followed her pointing finger to see that, sure enough, they had arrived at the only Chinese restaurant in town. Marco pulled the door open and walked inside, Star following him, and they got a table.

Star didn't shut up for the entire meal, and no matter how hard Marco tried, he couldn't change the topic. He was very much tempted to shove an egg roll in her mouth and enjoy the silence, but truth be told he kind of wanted to eat his egg roll. Luckily Star's idiocy kicked in about halfway through the meal as the waitress gave them the option to use chopsticks and she grew fascinated with the wooden sticks.

"I love eating with these tiny wands!" Star exclaimed with a squeal, making Marco mentally gag in annoyance. "Pew, pew!"

He sighed with relief as the waitress dropped off the check and their fortune cookies, and Star shrieked with delight on seeing them. _God_ , she was loud.

"I don't like the filling," he heard her say as he cracked open his cookie. He looked up and nearly guffawed at the sight of her sticking her tongue out with the fortune on it. Moron.

"That's not filling," Marco explained, pulling out his paper. "They're fortune cookies."

A sly smirk came to his face and he leaned forwards. "They can magically predict the future," he lied, wiggling his fingers for magical emphasis.

Her eyes widened in shock. "No way," she protested around the paper.

Marco shrugged and glanced down at his fortune with a grin. Oh, _way_ too easy. "A friend will greet you with a smile," he read off.

"Awwww," Star cooed, leaning over and smiling. "How sweet!'

Biting back a laugh, Marco looked at her in shock. "See?"

As she went through the motions of being her usual airheaded self, Marco sat back in satisfaction. If this girl would believe that cookies could predict the future, what else would she believe? Though he had to admit, there was a place on Mewni with calzones that told people how they would die.

Marco shuddered as they left the restaurant. He never planned to go there.

"Ooh!"

Star's continuous squealing interrupted his thoughts and Marco glanced sideways at her with a raised eyebrow. "What's up?"

"I wonder if these cookies could tell me how to find baby Marco?" Star wondered, tucking the bowl under one arm and cracking open a cookie with her free hand before he could even respond.

"The truth is closer than you might think," Star read thoughtfully.

With no warning, she shoved the bowl of cookies into Marco's hands. "Here Marco, hold these. The truth must be lying around here somewhere," she muttered, getting down on her hands and knees and beginning to search through the shrubbery at the side of the road.

Marco rolled his eyes and set the bowl down. "I actually can't, Star, my uh….my dad wanted me to come home as soon as I got back from eating lunch with you."

Star looked up with a frown. "When do I get to meet your dad?" she asked, momentarily forgetting her search.

Marco hesitated. For some odd reason, he really wanted to tell her the truth: that his parents were dead and he was a demon being raised by another demon. What came out of his mouth, though, was: "One day. He works a lot, so he's not home that much. Gotta go, see you!"

He darted away before she could respond and the second he was out of sight he cut his way back into Toffee's house. Somehow-and he would never figure this out-his cellphone had been able to connect to his magic mirror that he had at his house on Earth, and Toffee had called while they were at the restaurant.

"Toffee?" he called out, glancing around.

"Marco."

The boy spun around to find Toffee stepping from the shadows, and he put a hand over his pounding heart. "Hey. Sorry, I was with Star. What did you want?"

Toffee studied him closely, his eyes narrowing. "I have been able to make the deal I needed to get Star's wand."

A smile slid across Marco's face. "And then I can destroy Mewni and get payback, right?"

Toffee waved a hand. "Right, right. Listen, I have word from someone that Star believes her fortune cookies really predict the future?"

Marco's smile faltered. "Uh, yeah…how did you-?"

"Never mind that," Toffee snapped. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a fortune cookie, handing it over to Marco and closing the teen's fist around it. "Go back to the restaurant when Star runs out of cookies, and make sure this is the last one she opens. When the monsters come, pretend to fight them. She will stop you; don't resist. Understand?"

Marco tilted his head, nodding. "Yeah….what does the cookie say?"

"You'll find out when you need to," Toffee said, stepping back. "Now go. I will call for you when I have another assignment for you to complete."

Marco clipped open another portal back to Earth and, with a hesitant glance over his shoulder at Toffee, he jumped through and headed for Star's house.

He arrived to find Ferguson, a chubby kid that was on somewhat decent terms with him and Star despite what the rest of the school thought, leaving the house with a plate of what looked like nachos. The two nodded to each other as they passed, but didn't speak.

He stopped on the front walkway, staring up at the house with a lost look in his eyes, his gaze drifting towards a window on the second floor. His heart had climbed to his throat in the few seconds he had been standing there, and Marco was visibly relieved when Star whipped open the front door and ran down the steps, two fortune cookies clutched in her hand.

"MARCO! I'm almost out of fortune cookies! I _need_ more," the girl yelped.

Marco immediately steered her away from the house and started for the restaurant, rolling the fortune cookie Toffee had given him between his fingers inside his hoodie pocket. "Okay. Let's….go get more then."

"Wait," Star demanded, pausing to crack open one of the last two. "Follow your heart's desire. Okay, cool. Cookie it is."

Marco rolled his eyes but didn't protest, following her to the back alley area of the restaurant, where they came across two figures having what appeared to be a dance off. Marco instinctively knew that this was a distraction, and he used it to swiftly change the cookies, slipping the one Star had been holding into his own hoodie.

"I think they're about to throw down," Marco commented to the girl, glancing around just as the monsters appeared from nowhere.

As he got into a fighting position, he heard the distinctive cracking sound of a fortune cookie and looked over to see Star holding the one he had just slipped into her purse, the fortune situated between her fingers. "Love is always the answer," she read firmly.

Marco raised a slight eyebrow, but still dove at the monsters, only to have Star throw a hand in front of his chest. "No, Marco. Love is always the answer."

" _What?_ " Marco asked, flabbergasted.

The next thing he knew, he had been chucked into a dumpster, the dark confines made worse by the fact that it reeked of old food and scraps, and probably a couple of dead animals. Was _this_ Toffee's plan? Those monsters would maul her, and he wouldn't get the chance to do it himself.

He heard the unmistakable sound of Ludo's squealy voice and managed to get to his feet, slamming his head into the top of the dumpster before he was able to get over to the edge and push the top up to look down on Star, who looked like she had just been told that her puppy had died.

"You know what this means, don't you?" he asked, assuming that Ludo had botched his own plans and told Star that the fortune cookies were a lie.

"Yeah," Star said in a slight daze. "Love is never the answer."

Marco raised a slight eyebrow, a smile twitching on his lips. "Aww, I wanted to say it."

Seeing the look in her eyes, he ducked back into the dumpster and shut his eyes, listening to the sound of her wand going off. Somewhere out there, he could feel, Toffee was waiting. But at the moment, Marco wasn't concerned about him.

In the brief moments while he waited for Star to finish up with the other monsters, Marco flashed back on the look in her eyes when she had said that love was never the answer. It had been so angry, so enraged…he didn't see her like that often.

He kind of liked it.

Marco shook the thought away instantly and popped his head out of the dumpster as the blasting sounds vanished, clambering out and jumping to the ground next to Star. "Well," he said, not really sure what to say. "That was…."

"Yeah," Star muttered, tucking her wand back into her purse.

They both turned as the back door to the restaurant opened and the waitress they had seen earlier stepped out. "Oh, weird cookie girl. I have some more cookies."

Star squealed and darted over, yanking the bowl from the woman's hands. Marco stared at her with a mixture of shock and disgust, and when Star caught his look she grinned. "What? They might not be real fortunes, but they are real cookies."

A smile twitched on Marco's lips and he accepted a cookie from the pile, watching as Star cracked one open. "A new evil has been unleashed," she read off.

Marco nearly choked as Star giggled. His gaze drifted towards the corner of the restaurant, where he spotted Toffee watching them with a menacing gaze. The reptile gave Marco a stern, almost disappointed look, and then vanished from sight.

"I should…probably go," Marco stammered out, taking a few stumbling steps away from Star.

The girl barely looked up, intent on her cookies. "Okay. See you at school tomorrow."

Marco murmured his acknowledgement of her comment and then speed walked as fast as he possibly could towards his Earth house. On the way there, he shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and felt a small crunch.

The cookie.

He had almost forgotten that he had put Star's last cookie into his pocket, and now he pulled out the crumbled remains and dropped them to the ground, keeping a hold of the fortune in his fingers out of pure curiosity and glancing at it as he mounted the steps to his house.

 _Everything you know is about to change._

* * *

 **Good thing Marco doesn't believe in fortune's from fortune cookies….right?**


	8. St Olga's Reform School

**CHAPTER SEVEN: St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses**

 **Wow okay it's been a bit. Sorry about that. Also, THE NEW GRAVITY FALLS. AHH. WHAT. NO. ALEX CAN'T END IT LIKE THAT. NO. UNACCEPTABLE.**

 **Hem.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: Thank you so much!**

 **Godzilla2915: At the moment, the whole point of this story is that it follows the story line of Star vs. the Forces of Evil. For now, it's all episodes. I have the entire plot of this story figured out already.**

 **MariposaFalls11: Ah, Toffee and Marco. That's a relationship that's going to be really interesting later on.**

 **Princess Dia: I'm absolutely still working on the book. I was actually working on it right before I edited this. I may eventually post it on Fictionpress or Inkitt. Thank you so much!**

 **Guest: I honestly have no idea what you're talking about.**

 **Ghost: Pffft if they were written by Bill they'd say stuff like "Buy gold" and "Don't turn around" or something.**

 **Rayfe: I love writing the fortune teller.**

 **Tristrike: Thanks so much!**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I'm so ready for the hiatus to be over uggghhhh.**

* * *

 _Everything you know is about to change._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"What do you mean, you want to break a flying unicorn head out of princess jail?" Marco asked, completely baffled.

He leaned against his kitchen sink, switching his phone from his left to right ear and studying his monster arm with mild interest as he listened to Star ramble about her friend Pony Face or whatever on the other end of the line.

He flexed his monster arm, smiling thinly as he stretched it out for the first time in a week. It got cramped at times on Earth, and there was rarely time for him to exercise it and make it stop aching. Whenever he was alone at his house he made it a point to change his arm into the tentacle.

"….so anyway," Star was saying, "I'll be there in like three seconds and we'll go bust her out."

"Wait, what?"

The dial tone rang in his ear and Marco leapt away from the sink, fumbling his phone and dropping it to the floor as he frantically tried to relax and make the monster arm go away before Star got there.

He took a deep breath and watched as the arm twitched and then receded back into his shoulder, his red hoodie reappearing on his body just as a portal opened up in front of him. Marco made a diving leap for his dimensional scissors, which were sitting out in the open, and nearly stabbed his hand as he swiped them underneath a side table.

"Uh, Marco?"

Marco flipped over on his back and sat up on his elbows, lifting his gaze to meet Star's. She was looking at him with a raised eyebrow and she held out her hand to help him off the floor. "Why are you on the ground?"

He clasped his fingers around Star's without a second thought and for a brief moment was tempted to flip her onto the floor and end her and her kingdom then and there, but he refrained and allowed the girl to pull him to his feet.

"I slipped on a puddle of water," he lied, dusting off his hoodie. "So what are we doing again?"

Star rolled her eyes. "Going to save Pony Head!" she reminded him in exasperation. "She's stuck at St…St Ol…."

She started stuttering violently, her face paling to a color that reminded Marco of glue. "Star?" he asked, leaning over just a little and peering into her eyes. "You okay?"

She shook her head and pursed her lips. "St. Olga's….arggghhhhhhh!"

Marco's lips twitched into a smile and he tilted his head. "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses?"

Star let out an ear piercing scream that Marco swore could shatter steel and she dove under the kitchen table, burying her head in her hands. He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Star, we aren't even there yet," he reminded her.

She crawled back out slowly, standing up and clenching and unclenching her fists. "Right. Right. Okay. So I can probably just snip our way right into Pony Head's room, then we can get her and get out."

Marco shrugged. Sounded easy enough. He followed Star through the portal without hesitation, frowning in confusion as they landed outside of a massive, somewhat ominous, castle. "Uh…this isn't Pony Head's room," he observed.

As Star complained about how they hadn't been taken right to her room, Marco surveyed the area. In one direction he spotted a massive tower with glowing light shining from it, and instantly deduced that it must have been some sort of power source to keep wayward princesses in and unwanted visitors out.

"We're gonna have to sneak in," Star murmured.

Marco glanced at her just as she zapped herself with her wand, stepping back and covering his eyes as bright light shone around her. How the nearby guards missed it, he wasn't quite sure, but when he looked up again his jaw almost dropped.

She actually kind of looked badass. The horns and the dress and even the eyepatch…her hair had even become more unruly. Marco chewed on the inside of his cheek to hide his smile. "Do me," he suggested.

When the light dissipated, he was back to being irritated by the bubbly princess in front of him, no matter how good she looked. "Seriously? You couldn't have made me look like one of those guards?" he asked in disgust, tugging on the pink skirt around his hips.

"No way. Besides, pink is definitely your color," Star answered firmly.

Marco rolled his eyes but followed her to the entrance. Why was he doing this again? Was destroying the kingdom of Mewni really worth wearing a dress?

As he and Star traversed through the school and he started spotting more and more princesses being forced into submission and turned into monotonous zombie versions of themselves, he decided that maybe….maybe the destruction of Mewni could wait a bit. He kind of wanted to free these princesses, so that none of them would ever do to a monster what had been done to his family.

Star peeked through each and every door they passed as quickly as possible while Marco kept a close ear on the guards behind them. When she finally found the right door, it took all of Marco's willpower to keep the princess from breaking the door in.

"We have to be stealthy," he reminded her, reaching into his hair and pulling out a bobby pin with almost no surprise. He leaned over and, with tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, he broke their way into Pointy Head's room.

Star promptly jumped inside and flung her arms out to the sides. "I'M JUST HERE CAUSE I HAVE TO SAY-"

"Shhh!" Marco hissed, shutting the door behind him. "Do you _want_ to get caught?"

"Oh, sorry," Star said sheepishly as she turned back to Pony Head. "Hey! Pony Head! We're here to bust you out!"

The floating horse head-Marco wasn't quite sure what all that was actually about-turned around with the most unnerving face that Marco had ever seen. If _this_ was Star's best friend, he wasn't quite sure where that put the girl in terms of sanity.

"Sadly I must refrain," the horse said in an almost British accent. "But would you care for some crumpets and tea?"

"I got this," Marco said with a roll of his eyes. He walked up to the floating horse and waved a hand in her face. "Hey. Pointy Head. Let's go."

For the briefest moment, Pony Head's eyes cleared and she stared at Marco with something akin to terror, her nostrils flaring. Just as quickly, however, she was back to her dumbed down, girly self. "I am afraid I cannot, but thank you ever so much for popping in."

Marco frowned and glanced back at Star. "Maybe we should just grab her and go."

Star nodded. "Right. I'm on it."

She grabbed Pony Head by the muzzle and tucked the horse under her arm and, after creating a distraction courtesy of a teapot and some ribbon, Marco and Star took Pony Head and ran. Of course, like Marco had suspected she would, the princess started yelling, trying to direct the guards towards them.

"Should I blast our way out?" Star asked Marco anxiously, her hair flying in her face.

Marco frowned and shook his head. "No, that'll just draw more attention to us," he decided. "What we need is a distraction."

His distraction came in the form of a room full of princess' learning to "properly" hold a teacup, each one of them looking as if they would rather have their eyes stabbed out with a hot iron than be there (strangely, Marco knew a guy that could do that for them). As he studied the desolate looking princesses, a lightbulb flickered to life in his brain.

What did these girls want more than anything else? Hell, what did _he_ want more than anything else? To be accepted as an individual.

Marco bit his lip and spit the words out before he could stop himself. "It's not criminal to be an individual!"

Star looked at him in surprise and then started grinning as the rest of the princesses began repeating his chant, stomping on and throwing their teacups around the room. Marco felt a small sense of pride grow in him at the sight of these girls, but repressed it in order to grab Star by the wrist and pull her and Pony Head to safety.

"Teehee, he got scolded," Pony Head laughed.

"She's laughing at an authority figure!" Star gasped in delight. "That means the real Pony Head is still in there!"

If the horse head enjoyed laughing at authority for fun, Marco had a strange feeling they would actually get along. As they ran along, searching for an escape route, his ears picked up the sounds of guards behind them and his gaze landed on a laundry chute.

"There!" he said, pointing and pulling it open. "Get in. I'll see you on the other side."

As he climbed in after Star, however, he felt his stupid pink dress snag. "My poofy skirt is stuck!" he yelped, struggling to pull himself free.

Cold fingers clamped around his ankle and he kicked back, locking panicked eyes with Star. "Something's got my stockings," he nearly whimpered.

"Marco!" Star cried out as she slid down the chute and away from him.

The boy was yanked backwards by multiple guards, and he yelled out in rage. Seeing that Star was nowhere in sight and the only ones around were robotic guards, he let his monster arm grow and thrashed away at them, struggling to get free.

But there were more guards than there were Marco, and it wasn't long before he found himself captured. He got rid of his tentacle arm in defeat, resigning himself to the fact that he had been captured.

He was thrown into a chair in front of a screen, lost his bobby pin, and then the next thing he knew there was something clamped around his eyes and everything went blank.

* * *

When he came to again, Star was on his right and Pony Head was on his left, supporting his weight with their bodies. "Come on Marco, let's get you out of here," Star said.

Marco blinked woozily. "Are they gonna let me keep the dress?" he slurred out.

They ran through the hallways as quickly as possible, and at one point Marco glanced over at Pony Head. "I'm glad you're back to normal," he decided. "I like you better this way."

The princess glanced at him and snorted. "You too. Now I can make fun of that ugly dress."

Marco frowned ever so slightly, feeling unusually protective of the dumb dress, but he didn't get a chance to comment as they made their way down into the bedroom hallway to find every princess banging on the bars with teacups and chanting: "It's not criminal to be an individual!"

"Wow, you really worked some turd magic on them," Pony Head commented.

Marco ignored the turd comment, feeling a small smile twitch on his lips. He had, hadn't he? These girls were all riled up and wanted to be their own person….because of him. Marco hadn't felt so accomplished in a long time, but his gut was telling him that he wasn't done.

"My work isn't over," he found himself saying. "My fellow wayward sisters: they want you to be a rubber stamp princess. Well I say it's time we _stamp on them!_ "

While the girls cheered and whistled, Star took a few seconds to blast them from their rooms. As soon as her back was turned, Pony Head thrust her horn at Marco's neck. "Listen, Marco, if that's even who you are," she hissed, her eyes furious. "I know you aren't who Star thinks you are. I can _smell_ it."

Marco froze, his heart racing a mile a minute, and Pony Head narrowed her eyes. "There's something monstrous about you, you turd, and I swear if you hurt my girl B-Fly, I will decapitate you."

He swallowed thickly, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Pony Head, I-"

"Shut it," the horse head growled. "You tell me right now, are you planning on hurting my girl?"

Marco met her gaze head on. "No," he said firmly. "I don't want to hurt her."

They stared at each other for several heart pounding seconds before Pony Head moved her horn away from his chest, her eyes darting towards Star protectively, who was still working on getting the girls out. "What _are_ you, exactly then?" she asked softly, her eyes still narrowed.

Marco winced, knowing he was caught, and he looked over at Star. "I…I'm from Mewni," he admitted quietly, chewing on his lip. "And I…I'm a monster, but I didn't want Star to freak out so I didn't tell her."

Pony Head scowled. "Why would she freak?" she demanded.

Marco looked at her in exasperation. "Pony Head, she fights monsters for _fun_. What do you think she would do if she knew _I_ was one?" he asked desperately. "Please don't tell her."

Pony Head studied him for a long moment, long enough for Star to come bouncing over with about two dozen princesses behind her. "So, we ready to go kick some monster butt?"

Marco caught his lip between his teeth and turned his gaze to Pony Head. The unicorn head nodded slowly and gave Marco a thin smile. "Yeah. Yeah, we are, B-Fly."

He gave her a grateful smile and the group charged out the door, taking down every guard in the vicinity. As Marco watched Star elongate her wand and fire off a blast that took down the entire security system, he couldn't help but smile. He might have been wrong about her; she was kind of really awesome.

His gaze flickered to the tower, which was tumbling down, and he instinctively reached his arms out, grabbing Star with one and Pony Head with the other. "Looks like that did the job!" he yelped, yanking them out of the way.

As the dust cleared, Marco looked up and met Pony Head's eyes, and the two gave each other wary smiles. Marco wasn't sure he trusted her to not tell Star, but for the time being it was all he could do.

 _Besides,_ he thought to himself as he surveyed the now partying princesses, _maybe I won't destroy Star. Maybe….maybe the only thing that needs to go is the rest of the kingdom._

* * *

The crystal ball smashed to pieces on the floor and Toffee howled, digging his claws into the tellers face and drawing blood. "THE HEAD WASN'T SUPPOSED TO FIND OUT," he roared at her, closing off her windpipe slowly. "NOW WHAT?"

The teller gasped for air, clutching at Toffee's hands. "She won't….tell…..she isn't…..a…variable," she rasped out anxiously.

Toffee dropped her in a heap to the floor and knelt, glass crunching under his knee as he clutched the teller's scarf in his hand. "She better not be," he hissed.

He stormed out of the tent and the teller took a moment to breathe, to calm down. She slowly held her hands over her crystal ball and murmured a few words softly, watching as the pieces swirled through the air and collected back together in a sphere shape.

She caught it tenderly and deposited the ball back onto its stand, passing a trembling hand over it and rubbing the bruises that were forming on her neck.

"Foolish demon," she muttered, peering into the ball. "If he would have stayed, he would have seen that the flying pony head is the least of his concerns."

She gazed towards the doorway of the tent and scoffed. "Your precious boy won't be grateful to you much longer, Toffee," she grunted.

She looked over at the calendar and smiled as her eyes landed on the circled holiday of Mewnipendance Day.

"And when you don't have him in your clutches, there is no possible way for you to prevail."

* * *

 **Oh snap. Now Pony Head knows that Marco isn't who he says he is. But the teller says she isn't a variable….right?**

 **Reviews are lovely things, y'all.**


	9. Mewnipendance Day

**CHAPTER EIGHT: Mewnipendance Day**

 **BookWorm2the2ndPower: I already did. The story goes in chronological order.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: She just smells the monster arm part. Horse senses n'at.**

 **Rayfe: I was so confused about the corn comment until I was going through the transcript for this episode lol.**

 **Finnjr63: You'll just have to wait and see, now won't you?**

 **Karly Kat 13: Well thank you very much! I'm sure you could do just as well, if not better!**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Shit goes DOWN in this chapter. Not really. Kinda.**

* * *

 _"And when you don't have him in your clutches, there is no possible way for you to prevail."_

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

 _The moonlight shone brightly through the window, clouds occasionally filtering the soft beams through the window. The curtains rustled softly against the warm night air, and shadows danced through the room._

 _Murmured voices came from downstairs, soothing, calming, and lulling him to sleep._

 _Safety._

 _Cold hands. Colder eyes. Sharp claws prickling at his skin. A soft, murmured sound of comfort. Safe? Maybe._

 _Swirling lights, agonizing pain, screams of terror and then-_

Marco sat straight up in bed, his heart pounding and his right arm throbbing with glaring agony. He winced and flexed the muscles in his hand, trying to figure out what was going on. His dream was already disappearing, and he could only catch smidgens of it.

A bad feeling sat at the back of his throat, but Marco pushed it down and slid out of bed, stumbling to the bathroom and staring at himself in the mirror for a long moment. Shaking his head, he wearily started to get ready for school before remembering that it was a Saturday and that he didn't have to be up at the crack of the dawn like usual.

As he trudged back to his room, the sound of his cellphone ringing caught his attention and he darted the last few steps to pick it up, seeing Star's name on the caller ID. "Hello?" he fumbled out, rubbing his eyes and looking at the clock.

"Marco? Come over! We have to celebrate!"

Marco frowned, trying to remember if it was Star's birthday or something. "Uh…okay. I'll be…over in a few….what are we um….celebrating?"

"Mewnipendance Day, silly! Meet in my living room!"

The dial tone rang in Marco's ear and it took all of his willpower not to snap the phone in his hands. His gaze skipped to the calendar on his wall and a growl rose in his throat.

Mewnipendance Day.

The day that the Mewman's destroyed the entirety of his family and left him stuck with Toffee and hanging out with a dimwitted clot of a princess.

The phone screen cracked before he remembered to put it back down so that he wouldn't have to explain to Toffee why he needed a new one. He had to go; there was no reason for him not to. He was already awake and if he skipped out on a day like this? Star would know something was up, even as dense as she usually was.

With a grumble, Marco tugged on clean clothes, ran a comb haphazardly through his mess of a tuft of hair, and clipped open a portal to Star's house.  
It was only when he spotted Ferguson walking into the front door that he realized with slight dread the party was _inside_ the house. The house that Toffee had forbidden him from going into. The house that made every single part of his body scream to turn around.

He pushed open the front gate and walked up to the door slowly, his knees shaking the closer he got. But as he watched another kid-Alfonso, he thought-run into the home without a pause, he realized he was being ridiculous. What could possibly be in that house that could be so life altering that Toffee would prohibit him from going in? They were just earthlings, after all.

He was so wrong.

* * *

"Okay, I assume you all brought your swords?" Star proclaimed, waving her wand around in excitement. She wore a normal dress, but a crown sat on top of her head that normally wasn't there, reminding Marco that the girl was indeed a princess.

He surveyed the room while the rest of the people in the room questioned Star, his eyes sliding over the worn but comfortable looking sofa and across a wall plastered with photos of various teenagers-the kids the Diaz's hosted, Marco figured. A staircase led to a second floor and a door opened up into what Marco assumed was the kitchen.

All in all, it was a cozy looking home.

So why was it sending chills down his spine?

"Marco! You get to be my general!" Star declared suddenly, clapping a hand on his shoulder and handing over a book. He glanced at the cover and had to stop the scowl before it slid onto his face as he saw that it was a book explaining Mewnipendance day.

"Thanks," he muttered, storming off and flipping through the book out of pure curiosity.

He realized with a start that the book actually illustrated how much bigger the Mewmans were compared to the monsters, that the book made it sound like the _Mewmans_ were the ones who truly deserved the land instead of the monsters who had lived there first.

Marco growled and nearly chucked the book across the room, before realizing that everyone had trooped outside. He followed after only a moment of hesitation, stepping up to Star and opening the book to the pop up section with the monsters.

"Marco!"

Before he could respond, Star had blasted him with the wand and he found himself a good ten feet off the ground in a suit of armor much too big for him, struggling to hold onto the book. "Uh, Star?" he tried to say, gaining her attention. "I've been looking through…hold on."

He grimaced, realizing that his armor had made it impossible for him to speak, and he lifted the visor on the armor, sucking in a breath of air. "I've been looking through your book and something seems…off."

It occurred to him as he said it that maybe Star didn't _realize_ how nasty her people had been to his kind. If this was how Mewman history was taught? It was like…like American students being taught that the Native Americans had willingly given away their land to the settlers (he was a history buff, okay?). None of them realized otherwise, and when they realized it as they grew up, the majority seemed appalled.

"What do you mean?" he heard Star saying. "Let me see."

Realizing that he couldn't bend over and hand her the book, Marco simply let the paper fall from his hands to the ground, where Star promptly lifted it to her face and looked back and forth between the "monsters" and the "Mewmans."

"Huh…" she mumbled. "I see. You're right Marco, I can't believe I didn't notice it before."

To Marco's utter disbelief (against all odds, he hadn't thought she was _that_ stupid) Star went around making the monsters weaker and the Mewmans bigger and meaner.

"Star!" Marco protested, trying to swallow his anger. "I know…I know monsters are… _bad_ ," he spat out, "but doesn't this seem unfair?"

"Unfair…?" Star repeated, slowly, her eyes scanning the group.

Marco winced as one of the girls dropped an enormous mace straight onto Ferguson, making the boy scream in horror and writhe in pain. Alfonso yelped and knelt next to his friend. "Someone help him! He is writhing in pain!"

As the girl apologized profusely, Marco scrambled from his armor and darted back into the house to see if he could find some kind of first aid kit. As much as he wasn't a fan of Star at the moment, he didn't want the earth kids getting hurt.

He popped his head into the kitchen, glancing around and seeing no visible box for first aid before running up the stairs to where Star had pointed out the bathroom earlier for anyone who needed it.

"Seriously?" he grunted, digging around underneath the sink. "No first aid kit here, either? What kind of people live here?"

He stood up, bashing his head on the counter, and swung out of the bathroom, heading for the first room on the landing as he rubbed at his head.

When he twisted the doorknob open, Marco froze in the doorway, his fingers slipping from the knob as his eye gazed around the room.

It was a nursery. Or at least, it had been, if the baby pictures on the walls and excess stuffed animals were any indication.

The walls were painted a very pale maroon, and a bed was situated in the far corner,stuffed toys scattered over the top. Sunlight poured in from a window, lighting on a trunk off to the side of the room and making the glass that covered the photos on the wall glint.

Marco stepped into the room silently, his breath caught in his throat as all thoughts of Ferguson's injuries vanished from his mind.

He stayed away from the bed at first, moving to the pictures that were hanging on the wall. Each one consisted of a smiling, babbling baby, sometimes alone and sometimes in the arms of two adults Marco assumed were his parents.

The thing was, Marco felt like he was staring at himself. The eyes on the baby resembled his own, and the mole….

He reached out and pressed his fingertips against the glass where the baby's tiny little mole was, using his other hand to rub across his own.

Suddenly feeling panicked, Marco stumbled back a couple of steps, running into the bed and spinning around to grip the frame of it, his eyes taking in the cover. A single blanket was folded on the edge, the name _Marco_ emblazoned across it in gold, which stood out greatly against the dark blue of the fabric.

"Holy…"

"Excuse me?"

Marco spun on his heel, grabbing onto the foot board of the bed again to steady himself. Behind him stood a motherly looking women, her eyebrows crinkled in confusion over dark green, curious eyes. She had a slim, hourglass figure, and wore a dress with a sweater tied around her waist. "What are you doing in here?" she asked, her tone somewhat accusing.

He could only stare at her for a long moment before swallowing and managing to stammer out: "I uh…first aid kit….Ferguson…."

The woman, who Marco assumed was Mrs. Diaz, nodded. "I know, I already gave it to him. Head back outside, okay?"

Marco fumbled his words for a second, trying to figure out what to say. "I uh…okay. Sure. Um…sorry."

Mrs. Diaz nodded and led him out, stopping Marco for a second in the hallway. Her eyes studied him for a long moment, gaze softening as she watched him. "Have we met before, dear?" she asked quietly. "Has Star had you over?"

Marco swallowed hard and shook his head. "I uh…no ma'am," he said politely. "This is my first time here."

Before she could ask anything else, Marco slipped under her arm and darted down the stairs, sprinting to the yard just in time to see the mace almost land on Ferguson again. As he suited up in his armor, he swallowed his paranoia from the last few moments and located Star up on her balcony. He managed to saunter over to her in the godforsaken suit and leaned on the railing of the balcony, more for balance than anything else.

"Hey, Star," he said, swallowing the slight tremble in his voice. "We're ready to start when you are, whenever you give the signal."

Seeing the look on her face, he hesitated, continuing the sentence. "Or…we could go inside to eat and uh…call it a day."

Star frowned slightly, her eyes locked onto the cosplayers on the ground. "No…it'll be okay," she said, obviously trying to reassure herself more than Marco. "It'll be fun…."

Marco could see that she didn't mean it, but turned anyway, calling the go ahead. Star said the opening speech, and then a massive purple skull burst into the sky.

From that point on, it was utter chaos. Ferguson vanished somewhere into the trees, Alfonso got thrown somewhere else by the warnicorn, and the students that remained playing the monsters were basically on the ground crying.

Marco felt utter hatred rise up in his chest at the sight of them on the ground and he spun on his heel to yell at Star that this was enough. His arm throbbed with power until he watched the warnicorn slam Ferguson- _hadn't he been in a tree?_ -straight in the chest and send him flying to the ground.

"Ferguson!" Star shrieked, blasting her way down from the balcony and landing next to the groaning boy.

Except, Marco realized with a start, it wasn't Ferguson. It was one of Ludo's minions, and Star seemed to realize this too as the frog like monster stumbled away from them and ran from the yard.

Star raised her wand after him and Marco gritted his teeth, glancing away and waiting for the blast. When none came, he turned back to find that Star had lowered her arm and was watching the monster run off.

Letting him go free, Marco realized.

Because she would have been shooting him in the back. He wouldn't have been able to defend himself. And that wasn't fair. Star had realized that.

She hadn't….she hadn't shot the monster.

Marco looked from her back to the house and back again, his mind spinning as he tried to process everything.

Star hadn't shot the monster purely because he was a monster.

The Diaz's had a missing son who was now the _exact_ age as Marco, with the same name, same hair, same eye color, same _mole_ for Pete's sake!

Marco pressed a shaking hand to his forehead as everyone went inside for corn. Had Toffee been lying? Did the Mewmans really hate monsters as much as they said? Were all of them the same?

Most importantly….

Was Marco even a monster?

* * *

Toffee howled and spun around to face the seer, only to find that she wasn't there where he had left her. "NO!" he roared, swiping her crystal ball from the table once again and watching it shatter without even a fraction of smugness.

"HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO KNOW! HE WAS _NEVER_ SUPPOSED TO FIND OUT!"

Toffee tore the tent apart, searching furiously for the seer. "You piece of sniveling _SHIT!_ " he sneered, panting and tearing his claws down the fabric of the tent. "Why didn't you warn me?!"

A single scrap of paper fluttered out of nowhere, landing ever so calmly on Toffee's snout. The monster roared and swiped it off, accidentally making himself bleed as his nails caught on his skin.

He held the paper up to his eyes, his eyebrows furrowing. "A _fortune_ from a _cookie_?" he snapped. "What is that supposed to-!?"

Toffee scanned the words on it and fell deadly silent, the paper slipping to the ground slowly as Toffee started cackling, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes as he began formulating what his newest and best plan thus far was.

"You will regret this, woman," he snarled, stomping on the fortune as he strode out of the completely destroyed room.

The words _"Everything you know has changed"_ remained furled up in the dirt, the dust slowly closing around it as the tent collapsed.

* * *

 **Hehehehehehehe.**

 **Reviews?**


	10. Questions

**CHAPTER NINE: Questions**

 **I'm really cranking this out right now. I'm like on a roll these last few days, it's great.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: You'll just have to read, won't you? ;)**

 **Rayfe: You'll get to see more of her in this chapter!**

 **Lupus Boulevard: Well this isn't the finale yet. There's a couple more chapters.**

 **Bigmike33321: Since Jackie got her mind wiped, she doesn't really interact with Star and Marco at all. And since Marco was only originally there to befriend Star, he never really noticed Jackie (also, he's falling slowly for Star, no matter how much he denies it)**

 **Godzilla2915: Who is? I'm sorry, Fanfiction won't show the name for some reason. Also, that was my favorite part to write.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil. This one goes out to the mashed potato haters of the world. You know who you are, you little shit.**

* * *

 _The words_ _"_ _Everything you know has changed"_ _remained furled up in the dirt, the dust slowly closing around it as the tent collapsed._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!"

Marco shrank back against the wall of Toffee's house, his body shaking as the monster leered over him, his eyes a flaming red color that Marco had never seen before. "I…I had no choice!" he managed to get out, his voice cracking in terror. "Ferguson was hurt and no one else was getting him help!"

Toffee's hand shot out so fast that Marco barely saw it before it was clamped around his throat, lifting him completely off the ground. The teen gasped, tears springing to his eyes as he struggled to pry away Toffee's claws from his neck.

"I _told_ you," Toffee hissed in his face, " _never_ to enter that house."

Marco gasped for air, kicking his legs out against Toffee, but the monster didn't relent, bringing Marco even closer to his face. "Have you forgotten what you went there to do?" he demanded.

The boy managed to choke out a "No" and Toffee dropped him unceremoniously onto the floor, where Marco laid for a second, gagging and coughing as he tried to regain his ability to breathe. He looked up at Toffee with a surprising amount of hatred in his eyes. "Why do you even care about that house so much?" Marco rasped out, rubbing at the bruises that were already appearing on his skin.

Toffee sneered at him, kneeling and lifting Marco's chin up with one claw. "That," he breathed, "is none of your business. Just know that in one day's time, the perfect opportunity to destroy that brat of a princess will be upon us."

He yanked his finger away, tearing into Marco's skin and leaving a trail of blood to trickle down his neck.

"Do not disappoint me."

Marco waited until the reptile had vanished completely before finally breaking down into tears, wiping the blood from his skin and pulling his scissors out of his hoodie pocket. Something crinkled inside the pocket and Marco hesitated for a moment before reaching back in and pulling out a fortune cookie of all things. He hadn't put that in his pocket before, not that he could remember anyway, so there was obviously something important about it.

He glanced up to make sure that Toffee really was gone before cracking it open and tossing aside the cookie part, unfurling the fortune in his fingers.

 _See me. –The Seer_

His breath hitched in his throat and Marco stuffed the fortune back into his jacket, clipping open a portal in the air almost immediately.

The Seer was not someone Marco ever wanted to mess with. She was creepy and soft spoken, but incredibly intelligent. He had only met her twice, each time when she had come over to perform some kind of "mental" test on him that Toffee insisted was to make sure he was growing up without reflecting on the trauma of his entire family dying.

Now, though, Marco knew that wasn't true and he couldn't wait to get there, his feet carrying him at a pace that he didn't typically run at towards her tent.

Or at least…the remains of it.

Marco screeched to a halt and stared down at the rubble that had been The Seer's tent, getting down on one knee to brush his fingers across the ripped up fabric and shattered crystal ball. As his skin caught on the edge of one of the tears, he narrowed his eyes and his lip curled back.

" _Toffee_."

"You're absolutely right, Marco."

He spun around, still kneeling in the dirt, to find the fortune teller standing behind him, her clawed hands tucked behind her back in a nonthreatening way and a deep brown colored scarf draped across her head, which Marco knew from experience was covered with dozens of tiny snakes, almost like Medusa. Unlike Medusa, though, all of The Seer's snakes were dead.

"What do you want?" he demanded, getting to his feet and brushing off his jeans.

He was a good foot taller than The Seer, but he still ducked his head at her intense gaze, shivering a little when a gentle clawed hand caressed the fresh cut on his chin and wiped away more blood.

"I see Toffee hasn't been going easy on you," she murmured sympathetically, her voice crawling down his back like nails on a chalkboard. "I'm sorry this happened."

He shoved her hand away in disgust, finding the courage to look her in the eyes. "This…this is _your_ fault?"

"No," the monster snapped firmly, her eyes flashing dangerously and literally; they nearly blinded Marco, and he was forced to look away again.

She gestured him towards the remains of her tent, but when Marco turned around again it was whole, a single tent standing along the barren dirt road. He didn't ask, merely entered before her and sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

"We don't have much time," The Seer muttered, shutting the flaps of the tent and moving to sit across from Marco. "Toffee will come after me again."

Marco looked up at her and gave her a tiny smile. "Sorry. That's…probably my fault."

The Seer waved a dismissive hand at him and laced her fingers under her chin, narrowing her dark red eyes at him. "I expected it. Tell me, Marco….how much do you know?"

Marco swallowed and glanced down, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie. "I'm…I'm not a monster, am I?" he asked softly, too scared to look up.

There was silence for a long moment, and he realized that she wanted him to keep going. "I'm human, right?" he questioned, lifting his gaze ever so slightly. "I'm…I'm the Diaz's missing son."

"You are clever," The Seer murmured, a smile crinkling on her chapped lips. "Tell me Marco, how did you figure it out?"

Marco flinched. It was one thing to figure it out on his own, and another to have someone, especially The Seer, confirm it. "You know how I figured it out," he snapped, balling his hands into fists and pressing them to his forehead as he leaned on the table. "But…what do I _do_? Toffee wants to kill Star, and he thinks I still hate her and I…"

He gulped and ran his fingers shakily through his hair. "I don't," he whispered, barely loud enough for The Seer to hear him. "I don't hate her. I…I really, really like her. I don't want her to get hurt."

The Seer made a soft sound in the back of her throat and Marco looked up to find her running her hands over her crystal ball. "I understand," the woman murmured. "For now, Marco, I suggest you pretend to still follow Toffee's plans. Star will surprise you."

A smile flickered on Marco's face and he glanced away, startled when he realized that his cheeks were warm. "I doubt that," he countered quietly. "I don't think she could surprise me anymore."

The Seer clucked her tongue, a harsh, sandpaper chuckle spilling from her lips. "Oh no, she will. Trust me. But Marco, you have your own part to play in this. I can't tell you much, child, or it will alter the outcome too much, but when the time comes? You must focus on your strongest emotion."

Marco stared at her for a second, wrinkling his nose. "What…what do you mean?"

The Seer's head shot up and she glared towards the tent doors. "Toffee approaches. You must go. I will make sure he does not catch a glimpse of you through this," she promised, gesturing to her crystal ball. "What you do now will be all up to you, Marco, and Toffee must not stop you. Go."

Marco fumbled his scissors out of his pocket, slicing them through the air and glancing back once at The Seer. "Thanks," he said sincerely, before hopping through and closing the portal from the other side.

The Seer smiled grimly and tucked her crystal ball away into a drawer for safekeeping before sitting back and waiting for the fury that she knew Toffee was about to unleash.

* * *

Marco hesitated in the darkening twilight, his hand lifted with his fingers curled around each other to knock on Star's front door.

On _his_ front door, he reminded himself.

He chewed his lip for a moment before finally getting up the nerve to rap his knuckles against the wood, feeling like it made a much louder sound than he had anticipated. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the door was swung open to reveal Star on the other side.

"Marco!" she squealed, yanking him inside by the wrist and kicking the door shut behind them. "What are you doing here?"

He sent a weak smile back at her, pulling his hand away from hers and rubbing the back of his neck. "I um…I needed to come over," he admitted softly. "There's something I wanted to do."

Star tilted her head, glancing curiously at him, and he saw the exact moment she spotted the bruises on his neck. "Woah, wait, what happened?" she asked in concern, reaching a hand up to run a finger over one of the larger bruises.

Marco flinched and took a step back, drawing away from her touch. "It uh…it's nothing," he assured her. "Can I…will you take me to see the baby's room? The…the one who went missing?"

Star shot him a confused look. "Sure?" she agreed slowly.

She led him up the stairs and into the bedroom, gesturing him inside and flipping on the light switch, making the star shaped night light in the corner shut off. Marco stared at it for a second, glancing between the light and Star before deciding that it's shape and Star's name had to be some strange coincidence.

"What did you want up here?" Star questioned, watching him as he stepped into the room and moved directly to the pictures on the wall. "Do you have a lead on who you think the baby is now?"

Marco snorted softly, plucking one of the photos off the wall and staring at it for a long time, his eyes tracing over the curve of the baby's face and chin, the maroon blanket tucked around his body so that he was swaddled protectively.

 _Safe._ A feeling that Marco had never truly felt. At least, not until he had stepped into this home for the first time. The eerie feeling he had felt before, that drawing in? It was because he felt safe there, felt like nothing could hurt him. He knew that wasn't true, of course; Toffee would kill him if he knew that Marco had figured it out.

That Marco had figured out…he wasn't orphaned. None of his family was dead. They were right under his feet in the kitchen below him, and they had no clue.

"Marco?" Star interrupted his thoughts. "Did you…have an idea? Of who the baby is?"

Her hand landed on his shoulder gently and Marco swallowed hard, surprised to find that there was a lump in his throat and he was choking up. He turned back to Star, his eyes shining with tears, and held up the picture so that it was next to his face.

"Yeah," he managed to get out, listening to Star's sudden intake of breath as she saw the similarities between him and the child in the photo. "I'm pretty sure it's me."

* * *

"Do you understand me? You are not to harm him," Toffee demanded of the fly next to him. "Do not even _wake_ him if you can manage it. He will fight if you do; he's become too attached to the Earthlings, and is much too close to realizing that he is one of them."

The fly nodded quickly and started to buzz off, but Toffee grabbed him by the wing before he could.

"If harm comes to him," Toffee warned at a low level, his voice trembling with anger, "that I myself do not cause, you will find that those little legs of yours are not a good substitute for wings."

The insect gulped and zoomed away rapidly, and Toffee sank back in his seat, lacing his fingers together under his chin and smiling thinly.

"You'll see why you should have listened to me, Marco," Toffee muttered under his breath, moving his hand to pick up a sharpened pencil and tap it on the table in front of him. "You'll understand when your precious princess sees just who you really are, and that'll be the last thing you'll ever see or hear from her."

With deadly accuracy, he pitched the pencil across the room, watching as it slammed point first into the photo on Ludo's office wall, quivering to a halt as it embedded itself into Ludo's beak.

* * *

 **Okaaaaayyyyy this was a fun one to write. Like so much fun. But not quite as fun as future ones. *evil grin***

 **Reviews are very welcome.**


	11. Storm the Castle

**CHAPTER TEN- Storm the Castle**

 **MariposaFalls11: The Seer has been one of my favorite OC's that I've ever written. You'll see her again, don't worry.**

 **Snotty Theories: Well, shit gets way worse in this chapter haha.**

 **Jayswing96: You'll see why he kept him ;)**

 **MissPineapples: As you wish!**

 **Guest: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying haha**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _With deadly accuracy, he pitched the pencil across the room, watching as it slammed point first into the photo on Ludo's office wall, quivering to a halt embedded into Ludo's beak._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

It took a lot of convincing for Star to not go straight to The Diaz's-Marco's _parents_ -because Marco really wanted to find a good way to tell them himself, without just randomly blurting it out while Mr. Diaz was sculpting and Mrs. Diaz was baking.

Star was over the moon with the new information, but she still wasn't letting up on Marco about the bruises on his neck.

"Come _on_ , Marco!" she protested, following him out of the room and down the stairs. "It looks like someone grabbed you! Did you get in a fight or something?"

Marco swallowed, clenching his eyes shut and flexing his right hand slowly to keep calm as they reached the front door. "I told you, Star, it's no big deal. Okay? I'm just gonna go home and-"

"This _is_ your home, Marco!"

Marco flinched and spun around to face the girl, one hand clutching onto the doorknob. "Star," he said softly, "this…as much as….it's not my home. Not yet. I need…I need to talk to them first, need to…need to figure this out. There's things that I haven't…"

He trailed off, lifting his eyes to look at Star, to meet her gaze. She had her head tilted and was watching him with furrowed eyebrows. "Haven't what, Marco?"

Marco swallowed, letting his hand fall from the doorknob to rub at his right arm. "I haven't been telling you the whole truth," he managed to say, shutting his eyes and looking away.

There was silence for a moment, and when he looked back up he found Star staring at him in disbelief. "What?" she asked slowly. "What do you mean?"

When he didn't respond, Star crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. "I thought we were friends, Marco. I thought we could tell each other anything."

Marco flinched and ran a hand through his hair. "Star, it's not that simple," he protested.

"No, it kind of is," Star spat out. "Look, I get that you have like, a weird past, especially now that you know who your real parents are and stuff, but that doesn't mean you can just keep secrets from me! You have literally never told me anything about yourself, Marco, except that you like karate or some crap like that. Sometimes…"

She shook her head and leaned around the sullen boy, pushing the door open and letting in the cool night air. "Sometimes I wonder why I decided to be your friend," she whispered, turning her back on him.

Marco's face fell and he faltered, feeling an ache in his chest that he had never felt before at the words. "Well…fine," he got out, sneering at her back. "If that's how you feel."

He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him with enough force to rattle the pictures on the wall in the living room. He clipped his way back to his room and threw himself onto the bed, taking just a second to press a pillow to his face and scream until he finally passed out.

Star did similarly, flopping onto her bed and screaming into her pillow before bursting into tears and slowly falling asleep, only waking up when she nearly fell off the bed.

The princess blinked at the clock on her bedside table and grimaced, seeing that it was nearly ten at night. She rubbed her eyes and stood slowly, moving over to her desk and picking up her inter-dimensional scissors.

"I should probably go apologize," she mumbled softly, shaking her head and clipping a portal in the air. Star stepped through quietly into what she assumed was Marco's living room, furnished only with a couch and a floor lamp, and Star frowned as she closed the portal behind her.

"Marco?" she called out cautiously. "You here?"

She tiptoed into the kitchen and frowned, seeing the refrigerator door slightly ajar, the inner light casting a soft glow across the tiled floor. She opened it briefly, seeing nothing inside but a single, half eaten banana, and shut it again. A bad feeling was starting to settle in the pit of her stomach, and she ascended the stairs with dread.

"Marco?" she yelled again, peeking into each of the rooms she walked by and finding all of them utterly bare.

When she stepped into what was obviously Marco's room, based on the disheveled comforter and various pieces of clothing strewn across the floor, Star sighed in slight relief. He still wasn't in sight, but at least she knew that he actually had been there, and was coming back.

Her gaze drifted across the room and Star felt her heart nearly stop as she stared at his nightstand. Her feet moved of their own will, pulling her across the carpet, and she stopped at the edge of the table, her shaking fingers brushing against the dimensional scissors that sat on the table top, a small note directly under them.

 _We have Marco. Bring the wand. –Toffee_

The note fluttered to the floor and Star was gone.

* * *

"I don't _get_ it!" Marco yelped, struggling against the restraints that held him down. "Why don't you just…let me go until she gets here?"

Toffee glowered at him. "Because we don't know when she'll be here, thanks to your petty little tiff."

Marco scowled and clenched his fists, letting his rage bubble into his right arm until the monster arm formed, still trapped to the arm of the chair. He began yanking it back, but Toffee just cackled. "Now, now, Marco, you wouldn't want Star to walk in and see you like this, would you? It would ruin everything we've worked for."

Marco was ready to snap and tell Toffee that he wanted nothing to do with his dumb plan anymore, but he faltered and sighed. He knew the monster was right; if Star walked in and saw him like this? He knew how she felt about most monsters. She wouldn't help him.

With a pang of regret, he let the monster arm retract back into his skin, the cold metal of the clamps scraping his skin unwelcomingly. "Well," he muttered. "Looks like I've had all the fun I can in here."

Toffee smiled thinly at him and sank into his chair primly, folding his hands on the table. Marco narrowed his eyes and sighed, absentmindedly spinning himself around in the chair he was in.

Maybe Star wouldn't even look for him. Maybe she wouldn't get the note. Maybe she would stay safe.

But then of course….

"You made it," Toffee noted, pressing his fingers together as Star stormed across the floor of the hall.

She didn't respond, merely flung her arm out and sent off a wave of energy from her wand. Marco's jaw fell as the force of the hit blew Toffee backwards and ripped his arm clean off, and he sank back in his chair, jumping when the manacles around his wrists released.

Star spun to the box he was in and held her wand out, her eyes filled with fury. "Supersonic leech bomb!"

Glowing green leeches spread across the surface of the glass and Marco dove to the floor, covering his head as multiple blasts went off. But when he sat up, the glass was as smooth as ever.

It was then that he saw the crystals surrounding the cage, the very crystals he had picked up at Quest Buy only a month ago; the crystals that only got stronger the more they were attacked.

"Shit," he hissed, glancing up and searching for Star (and Buff Frog? What was that all about?) before spotting her standing above the room on the chandelier, shooting off a rainbow colored laser that hit the top of the cage and did nothing.

He watched in slight awe and, he would admit it, adoration, as she stormed over to the cage. Her entire figure started glowing and the second her eyes lit up Marco backed away from the glass in trepidation, flinging himself to the ground again as the world became completely white.

When he glanced up, the glass around him had shattered and Star seemed as startled as he did, looking up and meeting his gaze. "Marco!"

She ran towards him and he pushed himself to his feet, doing the same-only to slam face first into the glass as it reformed in front of him. "What?" Star yelped, her face filled with horror. She shrieked as one of the henchmen caught her around the waist and pulled her away from the prison.

Marco flinched and pressed his hands against the wall, glaring over at Toffee as he stood up. "That's enough," the monster decided, his voice firm but quiet. "That's no way to treat our guest of honor."

The look in Toffee's eyes unnerved Marco, and seconds later the demon had pulled out a remote and pressed a single button, and the glass cage surrounding Marco started sinking into the floor.

"No," he whispered, pressing his hands to the glass.

No way Toffee would kill him off, right? He had been doing exactly as he had asked for the last fourteen years of his life. Marco couldn't believe that he would just…

Actually, he could. He flashed back on all of the times that Toffee had sneered at him, had ridiculed him, and his fingers lifted to brush against the bruises still encircling his neck.

Dear god.

He was going to die.

A clattering sound rang in his ears and Marco turned his gaze to Toffee and Star, the glass beginning to push him to the floor.

"Take it," Star was saying, and he dropped his eyes to where her wand laid in between her and Toffee. "Now let Marco go."

She was…she was giving up her wand…for _him_?

Marco choked back a sob, knowing that it wouldn't work but nevertheless feeling complete gratitude towards the princess.

"Destroy it," Toffee commanded.

"What?" Star yelped, her eyes widening in surprise. "I don't know how!"

Marco missed the rest of the conversation, too intent on keeping the glass from killing him, from smashing him on impact and leaving nothing left of him aside from some bloody gore. His brain was going a little hazy when the pressure released, and for a second he thought he was dead.

Until the whirring sound of the door opening brought him back to his senses and Star was tackling him to the floor. "It's not over," she hissed at him, slamming the door shut behind her.

Marco was about to ask what she meant when he glanced out and saw the wand starting to glow a violent golden color. Toffee stared down at it as the other monsters ran for their lives, and just before everything exploded, Marco saw him smile.

There was utter silence when Star opened the door again and they poked their heads out, but Marco knew it wouldn't last.

As she surveyed the terrain, he narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists at his sides. He was there. Marco could practically sense him.

Without a single warning, he shoved Star to the dusty ground, hovering over her body just as Toffee stepped from behind the box, where he had taken shelter. His suit wasn't even the slightest bit smudged, and Star growled when she saw him.

"Well done, Princess," Toffee applauded condescendingly. "I wasn't sure you knew what you were doing."

She and Marco got back to their feet and Marco positioned himself ever so slightly in front of her while Toffee chuckled. "Apparently you knew far more than I gave you credit for," he amended. "Now, Marco, if you would be ever so kind as to finish what we started?"

Marco flinched and shut his eyes tightly. "Marco?" Star asked cautiously from behind him. "What does he mean?"

Toffee snickered, tucking his hands behind his back. "Oh, wonderful. You really didn't blow your cover! My dear Butterfly, your friend here…well, he's been using you."

Star's intake of breath made Marco spin on his heel, his hands outstretched in front of him. "No, Star, you have to listen to me, I-"

"You what?" Toffee taunted, a sneer on his muzzle. "Made fun of her behind her back? Plotted to kill her? Remember Marco, you want revenge for your people. The people her kind killed."

Star was staring at him in horror, and she took the smallest step backwards. Marco swallowed and held out a shaky hand. "Please, Star….I…it started out that way, but I…"

Behind him, Toffee chuckled, and Marco turned back in time to see him pull another remote from behind his back and press the button on it.

In the next moment, Marco's thoughts went black. He felt untapped anger swirl out of nowhere and flow into his right arm, the one he had stretched out to Star, and his monster arm replaced his human skin. Star gave a shriek and backed up again, and Marco let a wicked smile cross his face.

A chase. A chase was always fun.

He moved towards her and the princess yelped, stumbling backwards before full on turning around and sprinting away from him, Marco in hot pursuit.

"You can't run, Princess!" he taunted her, his voice ugly and cackling.

She turned to glance at him and her foot caught on an upturned root, sending her plummeting to the ground, her hands and knees skidding painfully on the soil.

Marco slowed and planted his feet on either side of her ankles, an evil smile working its way up his cheeks as Star whimpered. He had never seen her so defeated, never seen her so scared, and he lifted his tentacle slowly, drawing it back behind him in preparation to finally end this nuisance of a girl.

The tears spilled onto Star's cheeks as Marco whipped his monster arm down at her.

* * *

 **See y'all next year! :)**


	12. A Little Help

**CHAPTER ELEVEN- A Little Help**

 **Woohoo, I've got this chapter ready for y'all and I'm really excited about it because of CHARACTERS. AHH. ALSO. READ MY AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM PLEASE.**

 **StarButterfly07: What, you didn't think I'd leave you hanging, did you? I considered making that the final chapter just to piss everyone off, but I have at least two more chapters planned after this.**

 **Rayfe: *laughs evilly***

 **PROJECT K: Nope! No hiatus here! Hopefully never again!**

 **Princess Dia: Lol it's all good. And perfect, I tried to make that ending as unexpected as possible.**

 **K.S.: Why thank you :)**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _The tears spilled onto Star's cheeks as Marco whipped his monster arm down at her._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

Stop.

STOP.

 _ **STOP.**_

Marco froze, squinting his eyes shut and pulling his arm away so quickly that he fell backwards onto the ground, his body trembling. When he pried his eyelids up, his first sight was Star, curled up on the ground with her arms above her head, and he was instantly horrified to see that there was indeed a bright red mark lying across her skin where he had hit her.

"NO!" Toffee roared, pressing the button on his remote again. " _IMPOSSIBLE._ "

Marco flinched and sat up, flexing his hand and forcing the monster arm back into his skin before turning on Toffee, his eyes flashing with pure hatred. He pushed himself up to his feet in front of Star and swallowed hard, clenching his hands into fists.

"I don't know what you just did, or how you did it, but you just made the _biggest_ fucking mistake you ever could have made," he growled.

Toffee chucked the remote down to the ground and scowled. "Me? You've just ruined everything we ever worked for, and for _what_? Some…pathetic, cowardly princess that you fell for? What kind of monster are you?"

"I'm _not_ ," Marco snapped, his eyes narrowing. "You….you _made_ me one!"

Toffee's face broke into a thin smile, and he crossed his arms. "So, you finally figured it out."

Marco swallowed and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from crying. "You stole me from my parents, you…you did _something_ to me to make me like this. And for what? To destroy the stupid wand?"

Toffee cackled madly, slowly backing up into the fading shadows. "My dear boy," he purred. "The wand is far from destroyed. And this is far from over."

Smoke swirled around his form and Toffee vanished from his sight. Marco raked a hand through his hair and then turned around to look at Star desperately, his jaw working as he tried to figure out what to say.

Her eyes were filled with tears as she got off the ground, her legs visibly quivering and the slap mark on her arm slowly beginning to bruise. "You…"

He shook his head quickly, holding up his hands. "Star, please," he pleaded, his voice breaking. "I…I had no idea….that I was…I mean….and Toffee had me convinced that you….and the wand…and it started out as me trying to…trying to….you know…and then it…I…"

Marco trailed off helplessly at the look of disgust in Star's eyes, and she stepped back, her arm close to her chest and her other hand pulling out her interdimensional scissors. "Star," he gasped out, holding out a shaking hand and finally feeling tears slip down his cheeks.

She shook her head and ripped through the air with her scissors, vanishing through the portal without a word to him.

Marco choked on a sob and dropped to the ground, curling his arms around his torso and ducking his head, feeling beyond abandoned and alone.

Footsteps sounded behind him and he flinched, tilting his head in their direction. "Whatever you do," he grumbled, "just…do it. I don't care."

"Get up, child."

Marco jumped at the sound of The Seer's voice and looked up at the demon, a shaky smile crossing his face as she held out a clawed hand and helped him up.

"What do I do?" he asked after a moment of silence, his hands twisting around the hem of his t-shirt.

The Seer smiled thinly and led him over to a massive crater that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Marco hadn't even seen it be formed, but he followed the monster to the edge carefully, stepping over rocks and roots and moving to stand alongside her.

"She will not forgive you easily," The Seer murmured, glancing sideways at Marco. "But there is something you can do to make sure she will not hate you forever."

Marco almost questioned what she meant, but instead she pointed, and he followed her finger to the center of the crater, amongst a pile of rubble and dust.

There, glinting faintly in the fading light, was Star's wand.

Marco whipped his head around to look at The Seer in disbelief and she smiled gently, eyes filled with much more sympathy than Marco had ever seen in her before. "It is not whole," The Seer warned him. "Toffee has managed to steal a very important piece of the wand. The princess needs it back in order for the wand to work again."

Marco hesitated and then slid down into the crater, stumbling over to the wand and falling to his knees next to it, dipping his hands underneath of the handle and closing his fingers around it gently.

Nothing changed about the wands appearance when he touched it, but he could see that the star that was on the front had been cracked cleanly down the middle. Marco frowned in determination, getting to his feet and tucking the wand into his pants pocket before turning to find The Seer right behind him.

"How do I get the piece back?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

The Seer smiled, her pointed teeth glinting. "I think you know. But only someone with royal blood can put the wand back together. You can accomplish this, my dear. I have seen your past, and your future."

Marco's mouth had gone dry and he rubbed at his shoulder cautiously. "You…you have?"

She nodded, her eyes gleaming. "I have, Marco. And for all that you've gone through, you are stronger for it. And _that_ is the reason I did not stop Toffee from taking you all those years ago. Because if he hadn't, you would never have been able to defeat him."

Marco smiled thinly and jumped as The Seer tossed him a pair of dimensional scissors. "Go. You will need help," she acknowledged. "But Star will not trust you. However, there is one other that will help you, one I assured Toffee would not affect the outcome of these circumstances. She will help, but only if you get to her before Star does."

Marco stared down at the scissors and his eyes widened a little. "Pony Head," he mumbled.

The Seer grinned and when Marco looked back up to thank her, she was gone. With no hesitation in mind, Marco clipped open a portal to St. Olga's.

* * *

"You need _my_ help?" Pony Head asked in disbelief. "Why can't B-Fly do it?"

Marco winced and paced the floor in front of the unicorn head, rubbing the back of his neck. "I…Toffee was controlling me somehow," he admitted. "And Star….saw the monster arm…and now she doesn't trust me. Please, Pony."

He turned to face her, his hands spread in front of him. "I need you. _Star_ needs you. Her kingdom needs her and without the wand…."

Marco pulled the wand from his pocket and stared at it sadly, biting at his lower lip. Pony Head sighed and butted him in the shoulder. "Okay. Let's go, Earth Turd."

He whipped his head up to look at her and grinned, pulling out his scissors. "You are the best, Pony Head," he declared.

"Yeah, yeah," Pony Head snorted, following him through the portal with a glance back over her shoulder (or at least, where she would have had one if she had one). "Tell me something I don't know."

Marco shushed her as they ducked into Toffee's living room, sinking down together behind one of the sofas. "Okay," he whispered. "There's only two places that I can think of he would hide it. One, is where my room used to be. The other is in the vault in his room, but that'll be loud and draw attention to us."

"Your room it is," Pony Head muttered, shooting him a narrowed gaze.

Marco winced and glanced around, darting towards the stairs with Pony Head close behind him. He skipped across the creaky steps of the staircase with ease, having spent years memorizing the squeaks and groans of the steps so that he could get downstairs without Toffee hearing. Pony Head scouted ahead as he made his way past a particularly tricky portion, and ducked back as he reached the landing.

"All clear," she murmured. "I don't think he's here."

The crawling sensation down Marco's back said otherwise, and he shook his head. "No," he mumbled under his breath. "He's here. Somewhere."

They moved quickly to Marco's old room and he pressed open the door as quietly as possible, peering inside with a scowl.

The two ransacked the room softly, turning over blankets and opening trunks and sticking their hands into the tiny nooks and crannies that Marco had found during his explorations as a child. Their search proved useless, however, as they turned up with nothing more than dust and old clothing.

"It's gotta be in his room," Marco grunted, clenching his hand into a fist and looking behind him at the door. "We have to do this carefully, Pony Head. I don't….I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

Pony Head turned from where she had been checking under one last piece of clothing, her eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You…huh?"

Marco winced and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't want you getting hurt," he repeated softly. "Star would…I mean she already hates me, but I….plus it was cool of you to help me so I guess…."

He trailed off and frowned at the floor in slight confusion, glancing up only when Pony Head nudged him with her horn. She had a fond smile on her muzzle. "For what it's worth, Marco, I think you're a genuinely good person."

Marco felt his cheeks heat up and he ducked his head, not used to being complimented so sincerely. "Uh…thanks, Pony. Tell me that when we get out of here, though, okay?"

She snorted and nudged him towards the door, both of them peeking around the corner before sliding into the hallway.

Marco hesitated outside a simple, black wooden door and glanced back over his shoulder with a nod at Pony Head before twisting the doorknob and swinging the door to his room.

Toffee looked up from where he leaned against the far wall, a sly smile on his face. "Ah, Marco my dear boy."

Seconds later a knife was quivering in the wall less than half an inch from Marco's face and he and Pony Head froze as Toffee moved towards them, twisting a half broken star in his fingertips with ease.

"Took you long enough."

* * *

 **Haha whoops. Yes, that ending was a reference to a few chapters ago when he stabbed Ludo's photo in the dead center.**

 **Anyway, guys, I've been posting an original story called** _ **Little Magic**_ **to my Fictionpress account (TakingOverMidnight) and I would really appreciate it if you guys would take a look at it. I feel like if you like this story, you would like that one. I'm shamelessly self-promoting at this point, because I am not as nearly well-known on Fictionpress as I am on here. Thank you in advance.**

 **Reviews are much appreciated. ALSO MY LOVELY CHILD FLAVIA MADE THE COVER FOR THIS STORY AND IT'S SO GOOD AHHHH.**


	13. Blood and Knives

**CHAPTER TWELVE- Blood and Knives**

 **Sorry it's been a while; I have been in kind of a writing slump but today I forced myself to sit down and just write.**

 **Just a Little Spark: I don't know about merch, lol. I doubt anyone would actually buy it (though I know someone who could do a very good job at drawing her)**

 **AnimationNut: This is a tad more violent than slapping haha**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

" _Took you long enough."_

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

Star flopped down face first onto her bed and burst into heavy tears, fingers clenching at the pillow under her and chest heaving as she sobbed.

Barely a minute later, there was a light tapping on her bedroom door and Star flinched, burrowing her way further into the pillow in the hopes that a lack of response would make whoever was out there go away.

No such luck, as the door creaked open and soft light from the hallway flooded the room. "Star honey?" came Mrs. Diaz's voice softly. "Are you all right?"

Star shivered and shook her head, and a moment later the bed dipped next to her and gentle fingers wove their way through her hair. "Would you like to talk about it?"

The girl lifted her eyes to study Mrs. Diaz, the woman's face etched with concern and her lips pursed. Star swallowed and sat up slowly, wrapping her arms around the mother and burying her face into her neck. "Has…has anyone you ever really cared about ever lied to you before?" she asked softly.

Angie hummed softly in the back of her throat and lifted a free hand to resume stroking Star's hair. "Yes," she acknowledged. "Many times."

Star clutched at her back and sniffled, body trembling. "Did you forgive them?"

Angie chuckled and rubbed Star's back soothingly, making the girl calm down a little bit. "Some of them, yes. It's not easy; but sometimes they just don't realize what they're doing is wrong."

Star stiffened and Angie pulled away, looking at the girl curiously as she brushed stray tears from her cheeks. "What's this about, honey?"

The teen glanced sideways at her dimensional scissors and chewed on her lip. "Marco…was lying to me. But I think…I think he's in trouble. And I don't know what to do."

When she looked back at Angie she found the woman looking at her with a sad smile, pain evident in her eyes. "You help him, baby. It's clear to me you care about him."

Star nodded almost absentmindedly and reached for the scissors, studying them for a long minute and then sliding off the bed. "You're right," she whispered. "Don't worry, Mrs. Diaz."

She snipped open the portal and stuck one leg in, face hardening with a determined look. "I'm getting your son back."

With that, Star vanished into the portal and left an astonished Angela Diaz alone in her bedroom.

* * *

Toffee smirked and strolled up to Marco slowly, eyes flashing with what appeared to be literal fire as he plucked the knife from the wall and ever so slowly edged it under Marco's chin. Pony Head growled and started towards him, but with one flick of the wrist, the knife had nicked Marco on the neck and blood was trickling down his skin.

"Try that again," Toffee dared, sending a glare towards the unicorn head. "See how far you get before this boy is decapitated entirely and you have another head for a friend."

Pony Head's horn flashed but she backed down, teeth gritted as Toffee turned back to Marco.

"See what playing on the side of good gets you, my boy?" Toffee murmured, stroking the blade up and down Marco's neck and sending shivers down the teens spine. "Why would you choose them over everything I've ever given you?"

Marco scowled and spat up at Toffee. The monster recoiled in disgust and the knife ripped into Marco's skin at the jolt, sending crimson slithering down his body to the floor.

"What have you given me?" Marco demanded, ignoring the warmth sliding down his neck. "A bare bedroom? Fake monster abilities? No family? Tell me what the _hell_ you ever did for me to want to do anything for you or with you ever again!"

His anger flared and seconds later his monster arm sprouted and wrapped around Toffee's torso. The knife clattered from the monster's fingers and hit the floor, where Pony Head instantly moved to get it away while Marco spun and slammed Toffee back against the wall hard enough to make the reptile's teeth clack together.

To both Marco's and Pony's surprise, Toffee started laughing.

"My boy," he hissed, reptilian eyes glaring down at them. "You say I gave you nothing; but you're using the very thing I gifted you with to defeat me."

Marco shut his eyes tightly and swallowed, turning his head away and fighting to stay in control of himself. He was very aware of Pony Head floating up to him and butting him in the shoulder gently, in turn getting her muzzle covered in blood.

"Hey. Marco. Don't listen to him. You don't owe him anything."

Marco nodded and forced his gaze back on Toffee, his mouth curling into a sneer as he tightened his hold on the monster. "You think that you giving me this monster arm means anything? You think I'm going to do whatever the hell you want just because you gave me the very thing I plan on destroying you with?"

Toffee opened his mouth but Marco squeezed harder, the tentacle curling up around Toffee's neck and cutting him off. "Not a chance, you bastard. The second I'm done with you, I'm getting someone to take this fucking thing away."

Toffee managed a harsh bark of laughter. "Dear boy," he rasped out softly. "No one will remove that arm for you without killing you first."

"I will."

Marco and Pony Head spun around to see Star standing in the doorway, dimensional scissors dangling loosely from her fingers and face streaked with dried tears. Her eyes shot quickly around the room, taking in Marco's bleeding neck, Toffee's evil smirk, and the menacing glare on Pony Head's face.

"I will," she repeated softly, stepping into the room fully and moving to stand next to Marco, turning her frown on Toffee. "You stole a baby from the best parents I've ever met, and you turned him into an asshole, and yet somehow…"

She shot Marco a glance and then looked away bashfully. "Somehow he still managed to resist you to keep from hurting me."

Marco swallowed and slid his free hand into his pocket, pulling out the wand and handing it delicately to Star. The girl gasped and grabbed it from him instantly, fingers running over the handle and up to the top, where she stopped abruptly at the missing half of the star.

"Toffee has it," Marco informed her softly. "That's why I came here. I needed to get it back for you."

"For you?" Toffee scoffed. "Please. My dear, do you really think he's planning on giving you back that piece of your wand? He's going to keep it for himself, use it for revenge. You know that as well as I do."

When Star didn't instantly respond, Marco swiveled his head around to look at her, an anxious look on his face. Star flinched and stepped back slowly, wand clutched to her chest. "Marco, I-"

"Oh _come on_!" Pony Head snapped. "B-Fly, he's bleeding out the neck for you! He fucked up; so what? Are you gonna listen to this creep over the guy you very clearly had a crush on?"

Marco jumped and looked from Pony Head to Star and back, startled to see Star's face turning a bright red color. "Wha-?"

In that moment, a sharp tearing sound filled the room and Marco shrieked, yanking his monster arm away from Toffee and drawing it back into him quickly to leave his normal arm there, a jagged, bleeding gash running down the length of it.

In Toffee's claws was the remaining piece of the wand, the broken edge dripping lazily with Marco's blood. The monster straightened slowly, adjusting his suit as Marco collapsed to his knees with his arm clutched tightly to his already blood soaked shirt. He was beginning to get incredibly light headed, and Toffee knew it.

"This has been fun and all," Toffee said with a roll of his eyes, "but I'm afraid I must depart."

Brandishing the broken star at the trio, Toffee stepped slowly around them, kicking Marco once in the ribs for good measure and effectively jostling his bleeding arm. The boy howled and clenched his teeth together, glaring up at Toffee through watering eyes.

Toffee ever so carefully reached down and grabbed at the knife that Pony Head had tossed away earlier, gently pressing the tip to Star's chin as he passed her. "My dear princess," he mumbled tauntingly. "How does it feel to know that you allowed an innocent boy to die?"

Star gasped, eyes welling up with tears, and Toffee grinned wickedly, sliding the knife very gently across her cheek.

The moment the blood speckled up from under the knife, Marco growled.

"No."

Before anyone could comprehend what was happening, Toffee was on the ground with Marco hovering over him, eyes flashing with fury and utter adoration for the girl the monster had just been hurting. The monster arm grew with no hesitation despite the blood, and Marco pinned the reptile to the wooden floor with no problem.

His human hand flashed out and clenched around the knife Toffee held in his claws, twisting it so that the monster was no longer aiming at Marco but at himself, the tip of the blade hovering dangerously close to his neck.

Toffee merely chuckled, an evil glint in his eyes. "My dear boy, you know this won't work. After all, I have powers beyond your own beliefs."

Marco cursed and tightened his grasp on Toffee, hand trembling as he fought to hold the knife down.

"Marco? What does he mean?" Pony Head asked from behind him.

Marco wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Toffee is a reptilian monster," he spat out. "His people can regenerate from even the smallest piece. And he has a piece of himself locked away in this house where even I can't find it."

"No one can," Toffee said with a smirk. "You might as well give up now, boy."

"Did he also tell you that if you destroy the piece kept for the sole purpose of regeneration, he himself would be completely destroyed?"

The entire group looked up to find The Seer in the doorway, a glass jar clutched between her claws that had a single finger floating inside. "You see," The Seer muttered, sliding into the room, "what he didn't mention was that no reptilian monster in their right mind would keep a piece of them lying around to regenerate…unless they had no choice."

Marco was at a loss for words, but Toffee jerked under him angrily. "You cowering bitch," he snapped.

"Shut it, you overgrown lizard," The Seer scoffed. "I've always been one step ahead of you, Toffee. You were merely a piece in a game too large for you to understand. Marco, child, when he asked me for help kidnapping you, I made him pay a price: save one part of the body for regenerative purposes. Toffee believed you would never turn on him, and therefore would never have want for the appendage. I knew better."

Toffee howled as The Seer twisted open the jar containing the finger, and she slowly handed the jar towards Marco. "All that you need to do is break it," she informed him softly, red eyes flashing with something akin to amusement. "And he's gone."

Toffee thrashed under him, his claws pushing harder on the knife in hand, but Marco merely closed his arm around him more tightly, fighting the wooziness that was edging into his vision. He glanced sideways at Star, who seemed utterly distraught, and forced his gaze back onto The Seer.

"I…don't know if I can," he whispered.

"Marco!" Pony Head yelped.

"Not because I don't want to," he choked out, forcing the knife back down towards Toffee. "Because…I don't want Star to think I'm just…a killer."

"You're joking, right?" Star got out.

Marco glanced back at her again anxiously to see surprise on her face. "Marco, he's literally the most horrible person I've ever met. Do it."

"NO!"

Toffee, with a burst of energy that greatly rivaled Marco's own diminished strength, thrust upwards violently with the knife.

The last thing Marco remembered was cold steel in his stomach and Star's screams.

* * *

 **Lol bye.**


	14. Ashes to Ashes

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN-Ashes to Ashes**

 **Jayswing96: ;) Just keep reading.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: Be scared. Be very scared.**

 **Just a Little Spark: I do like The Seer; one of my friends has said she wants to try to draw her so we'll see what comes out of that.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _The last thing Marco remembered was cold steel in his stomach and Star's screams._

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

Toffee cackled and shoved Marco's limp body off of him, dumping the bleeding boy to the floor and yanking the knife out of his stomach before turning and pointing the still bloody point at Star.

"Now, my dear Princess, if you know what's good for you and for this boy, you will kindly give me back my piece of the wand," he intoned, his voice low and warning.

Star's lip quivered and her eyes darted between Toffee and Marco. "Then I can't fix him," she whispered feebly.

Toffee tisked in the back of his throat and shook his head, examining the knife carefully. "Shame," he clucked. "But then again, if you want him to live at all, you'll stop stalling."

Star gulped and clutched the wand pieces closer to her body, looking helplessly over at The Seer, whose dark red eyes had been keeping a close eye on the positioning of the knife in Toffee's claws. "What do I do?" she pleaded.

The Seer glanced at the girl and pursed her cracked lips tightly, eyes flashing with fire at Toffee. "Fix the wand child."

Toffee snorted and twirled the knife lazily in his fingers, stepping back ever so slightly and resting the heel of his shoe against the gaping wound in Marco's torso, pressing back against it and making the boy writhe unconsciously.

"Stop it!" Star shrieked.

"Fix the wand!" The Seer snapped.

Star looked at her sideways with a helpless face. "I don't know how," she whimpered.

The Seer frowned. "Your feelings, Star. The wand responds best to emotion. You need to-"

Her voice slipped into a gurgled choke and Star nearly puked when she saw the knife quivering from The Seer's throat, silvery blue blood sliding from under the blade.

"You speak too much for a Seer," Toffee hissed.

Star dropped to her knees, eyes watering and free hand pressed to her mouth as she watched The Seer send one last glare at the reptilian monster before she completely disintegrated into a pile of dust and dead snakes, the jar with the finger that had been sitting in her claws shattering against the floor.

Toffee strolled over to the remains as if he were merely examining a cloth that had fallen from a table and scooped the knife and the finger out of the pile, twisting the handle of the knife in his fingers and turning back to Star and Pony Head as he tucked the finger into his suit jacket.

"Now. Hand over the wand piece."

Pony Head snarled and darted in front of Star, horn brandished. "Don't you dare, B-Fly. You fix that wand now. I'll hold this loser off."

Toffee nearly laughed, until Pony Head flung herself at him and he barely managed to parry the horn away from his chest, his steps forced backwards and away from Marco as Pony Head fought tooth and horn.

Star turned back to her wand and pressed the piece anxiously against the crack, applying as much pressure as she could to the piece and leaning her whole body into the task.

"Come on, come on, come on," she muttered. "Please work."

Much to her dismay, however, the wand remained broken no matter how hard she pushed, and when she heard Pony Head cry out behind her all of her concentration was lost. She whirled around to see a trickle of blood slide down Pony Head's neck; the princess was still fighting, however, which obviously seemed to startle Toffee.

Over to her left, Marco groaned, and Star scrambled to his side, knees sliding sickeningly in the blood that had started to drip onto the floor.

"Marco?" the girl pleaded. "Please wake up."

The boy just groaned again and his body spasmed violently, fingers curling and digging into his palms as sweat beaded his forehead. His right arm transformed halfway into his monster arm and then back again.

Star blanched and leaned over, pressing her free hand weakly against the wound in his stomach and trying hard to block out the sounds of Pony Head keeping Toffee away from them in the background.

"Come on, Marco," she whimpered. "I need you to wake up. I need you here. I'm…I'm _sorry_."

She whispered the last part, lower lip trembling as her fingers that held onto the wand tightened around the handle. She tightened her grip on his shirt and swallowed hard, tears finally slipping over the rims of her eyelids and making their way down her cheeks.

Star jumped as the wand began warming up in her hands, and she looked down at it frantically, startled to find it glowing dimly. She unclasped her palm from around the handle and the broken piece slid against her skin, the jagged edge glowing.

What had The Seer said?

 _The wand responds best to emotion._

Star flinched and removed her right hand from Marco's torso, bringing her bloody fingers over and picking up the broken piece of the wand, sliding it gently against the cut that ran down the center.

"Please," she choked out desperately. "I need to help him. I need to heal him."

The wand glowed even more brightly, the warmth and heat focused on the center of the wand, and Star shut her eyes tightly and turned her head away as the glow intensified to the point where it nearly scorched the inside of her eyelids.

She heard Toffee scream behind her but she paid him no mind, letting her eyelids flutter open as the golden light died down.

The star in the center of the wand sat in front of her, once again whole and untainted, and Star couldn't help but squeal as she felt the power course into her finger tips.

"B-Fly!"  
Star spun to see Pony Head roughly shoving the point of her horn under Toffee's throat, the only thing keeping the knife away from her the angle at which her head was positioned. "Fix Marco and let's get OUT OF HERE!"

Star nodded and turned to Marco, holding the wand out with trembling hands and positioning it above his stomach. "Magic cleansing light," she whispered under her breath.

Warm blue light filtered out of the wand and surrounded Marco's body, the gash in his stomach healing up entirely and the color reappearing in his cheeks. Star grinned brightly and pulled the wand back to her side.

"Marco?" she questioned softly.

The boy's eyes flickered open and he frowned, looking towards the sound of Star's voice. His gaze almost instantly flickered upwards, however, and he gasped. "Star!"

She twisted around in time to see Toffee chuck Pony Head into the far wall and sprint towards her, knife raised and face twisted in rage.

Star didn't even get a chance to lift her wand before a purple tentacle shot out from behind her and wrapped itself firmly around Toffee's wrist. She glanced back to see Marco there, eyebrows furrowed and a scowl on his face.

"Not a chance, motherfucker."

Toffee's wrist snapped with a sickening sound that filled the room, and the knife clattered to the floor as the fingers around it were forcibly removed. The monster howled in pain and anger and Marco forced him to his knees with another squeeze of the monster arm, standing up shakily behind Star and moving towards Toffee.

"Get the finger," he instructed the princess.

Toffee snarled and Marco shut him up quickly by spinning the monster around so that his back was pressed against Marco's chest, and the boy wrapped his free arm around Toffee's neck faster than the reptile could move.

As quickly as she could, Star bolted over and dug into Toffee's jacket even while the monster struggled. But the tentacle that now wrapped around his body pinned his arm to his side and Marco pressing on his neck prevented him from actually moving his head around.

Star pulled back with the finger in hand and scrunched her nose up at it, backing up quickly when Toffee lashed his leg out at her.

"Destroy it," Marco growled.

Star hesitated for a second, only a second. But then she looked up at Marco, met his desperate gaze, and without another thought she tossed the finger straight into the air and held up her wand.

"Ultimate fiery destruction!"

Toffee howled as the finger burst into flames and shriveled in on itself, and Marco cried out and stumbled backwards as the monster burst into flames himself, scorching Marco's skin and singeing the eyebrows off of his head.

Star swirled around threw her hands over her eyes, trembling against the heat of the flames. As Toffee's screams dwindled down into nothing, Marco carefully stepped around the ashes and flickering flames and moved slowly over to Star, glancing off to the left to make sure that Pony Head was okay.

The horse seemed all right, though she was bleeding a little, and she gave Marco an encouraging smile as she sank back against the wall to wait.

"Star?" Marco tried gently, reaching a shaking hand out and looking down to make sure that he had both arms normal. "I…I'm sorry. For everything."

Star shook her head and turned around, wrapping her arms around herself and looking ashamed. "No. I'm the one who's sorry. I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself back there and I'm…I realized after Toffee stabbed you that what happened wasn't your fault and I didn't want…I couldn't lose you."

Marco opened and closed his mouth several times, unsure of how to respond, and he lifted a hand to rub at his neck. "Still. I'm sorry anyway. I should have told you who I was and what was going on when I realized what was happening in the first place."

Star shrugged and stared at the floor. "I can't blame you for not telling me," she whispered. "I wasn't exactly…the friendliest towards monsters."

"Would you two just shut up and kiss or something?" Pony Head groaned from her corner.

* * *

 **Gotta end on Pony Head. But yeah. Seer's dead. But so is Toffee, so that's a good thing!**

 **Reviews are welcome, and I need some sleep. Also Megan flipped me off a lot while I wrote this chapter.**


	15. Home

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN- Home**

 **Well shit I haven't updated in a while I'm so sorry wow. I've had three quarters of this chapter written for the last month and couldn't find the inspiration for the last four pages that I needed. There were two ways I could have ended it; I chose the one that'll probably piss you all off lol. This isn't the last chapter though, there is one more and then (maybe) an epilogue, depending on how I write the next chapter.**

 **Liliana Dragonshard: You'll just have to see, won't you?**

 **SonicELITE: Not the end. Not that chapter anyway.**

 **Jayswing96: Me? Write something suspicious? Nooooo**

 **Godlegend: If you look back on the story, you would see that Star needed to fix the wand because Marco was DYING. Also, Toffee is kind of indestructible. I pretty much made that the main point. I never said Star couldn't fight without the wand. But in that scene, she DID need the wand because otherwise Marco was screwed, Pony Head was screwed, and basically all of Mewni was screwed. It's canon that Star relies on her wand far more than her strength. That's her strong point; that's why Marco is the karate kid, not Star.**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

GENERAL POV

* * *

"Come on, Marco," Star pleaded softly, clasping her hands in front of her and giving him puppy dog eyes. "You know they want to meet you."

Marco grimaced and glanced away, gazing down at the grass under his feet as he struggled to come up with a response. "I don't know, Star. I'm not…I'm still not really human."

Star waved her wand at him with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, but as soon as I find the right spell we can fix all of that. They don't even have to know if you don't want them to."

"How am I supposed to explain where I've been all these years?" Marco protested, furrowing his eyebrows. "How do you just…tell your parents that you were kidnapped by a demon? They're never going to accept that; I was basically raised as a monster, Star."

Star bit her lip and descended the front steps quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Marco, if I can get over it, so can your parents."

Marco swallowed and lifted his eyes to her before nodding hesitantly. "Okay. Okay, let's go."

Star bounced on her toes happily and vaulted up the steps, grabbing the doorknob and pushing the door open with a flourish. "Oh Mr. and Mrs. Diiiiiaaaaazzzz!" she called out, practically dragging Marco in over the threshold.

Marco winced and pulled his wrist from her grasp, almost melting into the woodwork. "Star, I don't-"

"Star? What is it, honey?" came Mrs. Diaz's voice from the kitchen. "Have you been out _all night_?"

Star blinked and suddenly seemed to realize that it was barely eight in the morning, the sun filtering in through the curtains of the living room and the smell of bacon permeating the house.

"Uhhh…apparently!" she called back. "But can you come out here for a second?"

Marco gulped and shrank back against the wall, watching with apprehension as Angie stepped into the living room, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. Her hair was pulled into a large and sloppy bun, a wooden spoon was tucked over one ear, and she was wearing a t-shirt and sweats.

She looked…she looked like a mom.

Marco felt his breath hitch in his throat and he practically whimpered, making the woman glance over at him in surprise. The startled look on her face melted into one of thoughtfulness and her eyes searched Marco carefully, tracing over his face and finally landing on his eyes, chocolate brown colliding with emerald green.

Angela swallowed hard and looked back at Star, fingers clenching together as she struggled not to jump to conclusions. "Star, honey…when you left last night you said…"

"That I was going to get your son back," Star confirmed softly, a smile sitting on the edge of her lips. "Yeah."

Angie pressed a hand to her forehead and stepped over to Marco slowly, pausing when the boy sank back even further into the wall, if that was possible. He looked almost terrified, but his eyes held something akin to longing as they stared at one another.

She finally worked up the nerve to lift a palm to his face and stroked her thumb slowly over his cheekbone, and Marco found himself leaning into the soothing touch, the lump in his throat growing.

"Are you really…? I mean I thought when I ran into you in the nursery that you might…but…?"

She trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence, and Marco gave her a shaky smile, pressing his hands back against the wall to move himself forwards ever so slightly. "Yeah," he murmured with a nod.

"It makes sense," Star interrupted, rocking on her heels. "He was taken around the same time, and we had someone from Mewni confirm it for us, and-"

"Mewni?" Angie repeated in confusion, her eyebrows furrowing. "What were you two doing on Mewni?"

She turned her gaze back to Marco and studied him for another moment. "And what do you…I mean….do you know who took you?"

He flinched a bit and Angie frowned, her eyes filling with anger. "Who was it? Did you call someone? Star, how did you find him?"

The woman was now looking between the two teenagers anxiously, her fingers still cupping Marco's cheek. He looked at Star pleadingly and the girl just shook her head.

Scratch everything that had just happened. She was so dead.

"He got taken by this reptilian demon named Toffee," Star explained, ignoring Marco's glares. "This fortune teller told him that the only way he could defeat me was to steal Marco, so he did, and then he raised Marco to think he was evil and want to kill me, and so that's how we met, except I didn't know that, but then Marco and I figured out that he was your kid and he confronted Toffee and then-"

"Star," Marco snapped, his eyes filled with anxiety and his hands rubbing up and down his arms. "Please."

The girl shut her mouth and glanced down at the floor. "Anyway," she mumbled at the carpet. "Toffee's…he's gone now."

Angie knew she was missing something important, something big, but she wasn't going to pry. Instead, she turned back to Marco and lifted her other hand so that she was now cupping both of his cheeks in her fingers. "So you really are-?"

He gave her a tiny grin and Angela smiled shakily, pulling the boy into a tight embrace, burying her head into his shoulder, and struggling not to cry.

Marco jumped ever so slightly at the physical contact but slowly found himself relaxing into the embrace, lifting his arms to clutch at the woman's back and pressing tightly against her, shivering when he felt her brush a tender hand through his hair and rumple it. "You're okay," she choked out.

Something burned in Marco's eyes and chest and he took a shuddering breath. "Yeah," he whispered back, shutting his eyes and tucking his head against her. "Yeah. I am."

Angie pulled away slightly and stroked Marco's bangs from his forehead, a sad smile on her face. "I missed so much," she realized, her eyes watering. "I'm…so sorry, Marco."

He choked up again at the sound of his name and shook his head. "It's okay," he promised her, letting his arms drift down to his sides. "It…wasn't your fault."

Angie smiled thinly. "Still."

Star coughed softly and they turned to look at her. "Where's Mr. Diaz?"

Angie frowned, glancing towards the door. "He uh…he already left for work. I could call him, get him to come back home."

Marco shook his head. "It's okay," he promised her. "I can wait a little bit longer. I've already waited fourteen years."

Mrs. Diaz swallowed hard and pressed her hands gently to Marco's cheeks, smiling when he didn't flinch or step away. "Are you hungry? Can I make you kids anything to eat?"

Marco smiled and shook his head, reaching up to clasp his mother's fingers in his own. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm just really tired; I think I'll nap, if that's okay with you."

Angie nodded and squeezed his hand gently before forcing herself to pull away and gesturing up the stairs. "You can uh…stay in the guest ro-well, technically it's your room…if you'd like it."

She twisted the hem of her shirt anxiously in her fingers and chewed on her lower lip, trying hard not to grab hold of him again. Marco ducked his head and grinned at the floor, swallowing hard. "I'd like that a lot," he whispered, hugging himself tightly and glancing sideways at his mother. "Thank you."

Angie nodded and Star took the cue to grab Marco's elbow and gently tug him up the stairs, their feet clattering loudly in the sudden quiet of the house.

"Why don't we get rid of that arm?" Star asked, tilting her head thoughtfully. "I think you might feel better if we did."

Marco bobbed his head instantly and followed Star into her room for the first time, nearly tripping over his own two feet in utter shock at how massive the area was. It didn't look nearly that big from the outside, although the tower was kind of a dead giveaway that a princess lived there.

Star ignored everything in the room and went straight to her bed, collapsing onto the floor and wriggling under the frame to pull out a massive book that was covered in dust and dirt and littered with tears. She pulled it open as if it didn't weigh a thing and began flipping through the pages quickly, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Monster arm, monster arm, where is the monster arm spell?" she muttered under her breath, sliding over a little as Marco sank down next to her and began scanning the pages himself.

It took nearly an hour, and a lot of coughing from the rising dust, but they finally managed to locate the reversal to the monster arm spell that Star assumed Toffee had used.

"Okay," Star said, getting to her feet and grabbing her wand as she dragged Marco over towards the more open area of the room. "You sure about this?"

Marco nodded quickly. "Do I need to have the arm transformed to do it?"

Star glanced back at the book and nodded, and watched silently as Marco flexed his fingers. The tentacle grew more slowly than usual, as if it knew it wasn't coming back, but it finally finished extending and Marco held the arm out, studying it almost fondly for a moment.

"I know that it's pretty much evil," Marco admitted softly, "but it technically is a part of me."

Star raised an eyebrow at him, lowering her wand to her side. "Then are you sure you want to-?"

"Yes," he snapped urgently. "I don't…I can't have my parents…"

He swallowed and glanced away, his tentacle twitching and tensing, and his left hand clenched at his side. Star smiled gently and twisted the wand in her fingers. "Marco, regardless of what happened to you, I think your mom and dad will just be happy that you're back, and that you're safe."

Marco shrugged, running his hand through his hair. "Still. It's…a reminder of things that I don't want to remember. I'd rather it be gone…as useful as it can be sometimes."

Star giggled and lifted the wand again, aiming it at the tentacle and squinting one eye shut so that she could see better. "Reverse in maledictionem, levate incantatores, et in brachio extento et in tota!"

The force from her wand actually shoved Star back a few steps as a blinding white and purple light spun from the center star and swirled vibrantly around Marco's monster arm. He jolted as it hit and flung his hand over his eyes to keep from being blinded.

"Is it working?" Star called out, bracing her feet against the rug to keep from sliding further.

Neither of them could really see anything, so Marco was forced to rely on how his body itself felt. But he could feel the arm shrinking, albeit slowly, and a smile slid across his face despite everything.

"I think so!"

Star took another step back, her fingers beginning to hurt from clenching onto the wand so hard, and she was about to call out to Marco again when he screamed.

It was a soul shattering, tear jerking scream that Star hadn't heard from him even when he got stabbed, and it scared the absolute shit out of her. She instantly called off the spell, stumbling once again as the magic was sucked back into the wands core, and she watched in utter shock as Marco collapsed to the floor clutching his right arm to his chest, tears streaming down his face.

The monster arm was burnt beyond recognition.

* * *

 **Lol whoops. Blame Flavia (don't blame my child I love her; she just gave me inspiration).**

 **The incantation was Latin for "Reverse the curse, end the spell, leave the arm whole and well" because I am not creative and yes I used Google Translate so it's probably not right haha.**


	16. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE- I finally got this up, wow. This story took much longer than I anticipated, but honestly I'm happy it took this long because if I had been trying to put it up as often as I started out, it would have been rushed and not good.**

 **SonicELITE: Nah, here's the actual ending haha.**

 **AnthroDragon: I'm not sure if you have no soul or if my writing was just that terrible lol**

 **ICan'tWrite07: Well, here's the ending, so you tell me!**

 **SweetRiceball20: That is most certainly not it; this is!**

 **I don't own Star vs. the Forces of Evil.**

* * *

 _The monster arm was burnt beyond recognition._

* * *

GENERAL POV- _2 Years Later_

* * *

"Star! Are you ready to go?"

Marco shifted the backpack he had slung over his left shoulder, double checking to make sure that he hadn't forgotten his math homework again. He was doomed in that class if he did.

"One second, Marco!"

The sixteen-year-old smiled thinly and shook his head, stepping over to the kitchen and glancing inside to find his mother chopping up vegetables and dumping them in the waiting slow-cooker at her side. "Hey Mom, we're about to head out. See you after school?"

Angie barely looked up from her cutting board, wagging the knife jokingly in Marco's general direction. "Yeah, yeah. Now shoo, or you two are going to be late."

Marco held up a hand and grinned, ducking out of the kitchen and turning in time to see Star come flying-literally-down the stairs, her left hand rummaging through the confines of her backpack. "Marco, have you seen my wand?"

Instead of answering, Marco reached up quickly with his left hand and grabbed the base of Star's wings, jolting her to a halt before she could slam into the wall. She smiled sheepishly down at him and sank to the floor. "Thanks. But seriously, have you-?"

He chuckled and held up said wand in his hand. "You left it on the coffee table. Can we leave now?"

Star snatched the wand from his fingers and grabbed at his hand, dragging him to the door and calling out goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Diaz. "Okay so seriously, tell me I was imagining it yesterday when Jackie Lynn Thomas tried to ask you on a date?"

Marco blushed and ducked his head. "Well yeah, but you know I turned her down."

Star slapped his shoulder before slinging an arm around his waist. "You better have said no. You're mine."

Marco smiled warmly and leaned over, pressing a kiss to the princess' temple. "Yeah, I know. You know she's just jealous."

Star pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Too bad. She can stuff it."

"Didn't you guys used to be best friends?" Marco inquired as they waited for the bus.

Star gave him a tiny glower and shoved at his side lightly. "Well yeah, but _someone_ made sure that we didn't stay like that."

Marco held up a hand in defense. "Hey. You know I was brainwashed."

Star giggled and hopped up onto the steps of the bus as it rolled to a halt in front of them, skipping to her seat and sliding to the window so that Marco could sink down next to her, adjusting his backpack in his lap comfortably.

"Hey Marco! Hey Star!" piped up Ferguson from in front of them, his head popping up over the green plastic seat, Alfonso at his side. "Did you guys hear?"

"Hear what?" Marco asked, leaning against Star's left side lightly and gazing up at the boys curiously.

"Mrs. Mahone finally had her baby, so we have a substitute for psychology for the next like two months!"

"Aw, yes!" Marco cheered, lifting up his hand and high fiving Ferguson. "You know who it is?"

"Not a clue," Alfonso answered for the pudgier one. "Just that she has this reputation for being super tough."

Marco frowned. "Then why are we cheering?"

Ferguson shoved his shoulder, nearly sending himself to the floor at the force he used. " _Because_ , you idiot, she's old. Maybe she's tough at grading, but there's no _way_ she can keep order in the classroom."

Star rolled her eyes at the trio and stood up as the bus came to a halt in front of the school, swaying a little at the motion. "Well, while you guys figure out how best to torture your new psych teacher, I'm stuck failing my Home Ec course."

Marco chuckled, following his girlfriend off the bus and waiting for Ferguson and Alfonso before continuing into the building. "I told you I can tutor you. I am an amazing chef."

The doors squeaked on their hinges as the group pushed inside, Marco pausing in the entryway. "Hey, I gotta go drop off this excuse note from my dentist appointment Friday in the office. Meet you in homeroom."

The trio waved and ventured off, leaving Marco to turn and open the door of the office, his shoulder sliding on the glass and his fingers clutching the note tightly. When he looked up though, no grip on earth could have kept the note in his fingers.

An older woman stood at the receptionist's desk, talking quietly to the secretary as she handed over a driver's license for the woman to look at. She was hunched in the back, with dark brown eyes and slender, almost spidery fingers, and a _hijab_ covered her head, though Marco had a sneaking suspicion that if he pulled it off he wouldn't find hair under it.

He'd find dead snakes.

Marco swallowed hard as the Seer- _the Seer_ -turned away from the desk and gestured to him, a smile twitching on her cracked lips. "Come, young man. Don't let me keep you," she rasped, her voice like sandpaper.

Marco licked his lips and scurried to the desk, handing over the note to the secretary, waiting nervously as she verified it and handed him what was basically a receipt for his absence, at the same time handing over an identification sticker to the Seer. "Thank you for subbing on such short notice, Miss Voyante. I'm sure that Mrs. Mahone would appreciate it."

The Seer smiled thinly, her eyes never leaving Marco's gaze. "Of course. Anything to help the children learn. Come, son. Walk with me, show me around the school."

Marco knew he couldn't say no in front of the secretary without coming off as nasty, so he nodded numbly and shouldered his way out of the office, The Seer directly behind him.

"I thought you were dead," was the first thing he managed to get out after the door swung shut.

The Seer rolled her eyes, which had switched from brown to red abruptly. "Wonderful to see you too, my child. I was not dead, no; it was best if Toffee believed I was dead, however. I did much the same thing he planned to; kept a part of myself hidden away so that if anything were to happen to me I would regenerate. Though I wasn't foolish enough to have it be a body part so readily visible to the world."

"What-? Never mind," Marco amended quickly, not ready to find out exactly what part of the Seer's body was missing. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm checking up on you," the Seer murmured softly, pausing to rake her eyes down Marco's body, gaze landing on where his right arm had once been. He shifted uncomfortably and rubbed his left hand over the stub of his shoulder. "I see that Toffee went through with his plan to prevent you from freeing yourself of the monster arm. He was convinced you would not go to such drastic measures to destroy it."

Marco wrinkled his nose and shifted his backpack again, tapping his fingers against the strap. "Yeah," he mumbled. "I'd rather not discuss it. Why are you really here, though? No offense, but you don't really strike me as the "check-up" kind of monster."

The Seer pursed her lips and pressed her fingers together thoughtfully. "You are correct," she admitted. "I came to warn you. About Toffee."

Marco nearly protested that the monster was dead, until remembering that he had thought the demon before him was dead as well. "What about him?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

The Seer sighed. "I believe that he was never truly gone; merely waiting and gaining his strength to come after you again."

"How would that even be possible?" Marco protested. "We destroyed the limb he set aside, and then killed him. How could he just…still be alive?"

"Tell me, son, how did he die?"

Marco frowned, struggling to remember. "We…Star burned the finger that he would have re-grown out of. He burst into flames because of it."

The Seer cursed softly, causing a couple of meandering students in the hall to look at her in surprise. "Marco, destroying the chosen body part does not inherently destroy the monster. It greatly weakens them, yes, but it does not permanently destroy them."

Marco froze in his tracks, heart sinking. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

"I mean," she said softly, pausing outside of Marco's homeroom, "that Toffee must have used some sort of spell to get away from you in a way that made it seem as if he was dead. He is greatly weakened, I assume, because that type of magic is taxing. But he is still out there, Marco."

Marco groaned and slumped against the wall, dragging his hand down his face. "You're kidding me, right? I can't do that again, I can't go through all that again, I can't…I can't put _Star_ through that again. Not when everything is finally perfect."

The Seer smiled gently and rested a gnarled hand on his shoulder. "All in good time, my dear. The amount of power he used caused his health to decline to the point of near death, and his revival of health will most likely take many years. I was merely coming here to warn you of the future."

She gazed down at him, and Marco got the uncomfortable feeling that she was seeing far more than just his missing arm. "For now, I am here to keep an eye on you and Star. When the time comes, I will be here to assist you. Until then…"

Her hand twisted open the door and gestured in towards Star, who was giggling at something that Alfonso had said. Marco relaxed a little at the sight of her and glanced over at the Seer.

"Until then," she continued, "be happy. Enjoy what you have, Marco. Because there will come a day when you could lose it all."

* * *

 **The End.**

 **But seriously thanks everyone so so much for reading, favoriting, reviewing, following, and everything. I appreciate it a lot. And thanks again to my lovely child artsyfalafel for making the lovely cover art that I used for this story. It's still my phone lock screen.**

 **If there are any questions left unanswered from this story, let me know in the reviews and I will see if I can answer it!**

 **Until then, keep up with being wonderful readers!**


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